Gervaise

This is one of the best movie I've ever seen. Maria Schell is beautiful and hearthbreaking.I am not surprised it won the best foreign film of 1956. Suzy Delair is terrific and Francois Perier is superb. I will never forget this movie. It touched me deeply.

Against every preconception I could think of, I loved this film. Gervaise is not only an interesting parable which rightly exposes the us to the dangers of drink, but making Maria Schell the protagonist casts the light of feminism into the equation. There is no way to ignore this interpretation either given Schell's brilliantly righteous performance as Gervaise.

Her husband is a drunken fool, no longer able to bring in money to support his family following an accident François Perier plays a drunk worryingly convincingly, but Gervaise is far from helpless. She puts up with the incessant tirade of abuse, womanising and eventually the violence. She is vulnerable yet forceful, respected but never entirely respectful. Nonetheless she is a protagonist and she isn't without her flaws. Her forgiveness of her husband cannot be criticised; we mustn't forget that we're watching a film about the second empire. The issues however are increasingly relevant. Both to Clement as a director in the 1950's and to anyone who decides that picking up a bottle can only harm the consumer.

This as far as I know is the only film version of a very famous story by a French Novelist called Emile Zola. It is "L'Assommoir" and is the story of how drink and alcohol can ruin lives and kill. The film is extremely well acted but seems a bit "short" compared to the book which has far more lurid details concerning the downfall of each of the characters. The story takes place behind the Gare du Nord in the Northern Sector of Paris in what is called today the "Quartier de la Goutte d'Or". Unfortunately that area today bears absolutely no resemblance to that portrayed either in the book or the film and is extremely dangerous and violent - any visit of it is strongly advised against. Anyway the story is very moving but be warned the outcome is not a happy one. One other thing, the book is one of a series written by Zola about a family called "Les Rougon-Macquart". The series also includes the book "Germinal" which has several times been made as a film. But of all the films of Zola's books I have see, L'Assommoir (Gervaise ) is my favourite !

François Perier as the alcoholic Henri Coupeau is unsurpassed as sick man having his overdose and delirium by alcohol. Maria Shell as Gervaise is convincing as the poor woman working day and night for the drunken men she is having in her home and her little daughter! This movie should be shown to all people having drinking problems. As it is set in a different period (the end of the second Emperor Napoleon's reign) is has something universal. The general atmosphere of this epoch is however very accurate.

Why Maria Schell?If you have read Zola's masterpiece -"l'assommoir" the seventh of the Rougon Macquart saga,and one of the finest, surpassed only by "Germinal"- ,you wonder why Clement chose her when the part was tailor made for Simone Signoret.On the other hand ,Suzy Delair was the ideal Virginie Poisson,hypocrite venomous and vile .They say her buttocks were "dubbed" (by Liliane Montevecchi's) during the famous scene of the spanking ! René Clément did a good job even if his adaptation seemed sometimes tame and timid .Zola's depictions are so intense that it's hard to transfer them to the screen.But the " fête de Gervaise " ,with the gargantuan meal comes close to fully recreate it,and it was not easy since in the book it spreads over about twenty pages.

Despise some reservations,this is an unqualified must for good cinema lovers.