Gervaise
- Maria Schell: Gervaise Macquart Coupeau
- François Périer: Henri Coupeau
- Jany Holt: Mme Lorilleux
- Florelle: Maman Coupeau
- Mathilde Casadesus: Mme Boche
- Micheline Luccioni: Clémence
- Lucien Hubert M. Poisson
- Jacques Harden: Goujet
- Jacques Hilling: M. Boche
- Amédée: Mes Bottes
- Hubert de Lapparent: M. Lorilleux
- Hélène Tossy: Mme Bijard
- Rachel Devirys: Mme Fauconnier
- Yvonne Claudie: Mme Putois
Gervaise is a French film drama directed by René Clément in 1956 after the 1902 published novel L' Assommoir by Émile Zola.
Plot and background
Gervaise, a young, mild-mannered laundress, will leave in Paris in 1852 with her two sons by her lover Auguste Lantier. She copes with this situation and some years later she married the roofer Henri Coupeau. After she continues to work hard for several years, she fulfilled her dream and buys its own laundry. Over time, her husband Coupeau starts to drink, after falling from the roof in a work accident and her lover Lantier suddenly resurfaces.
The factory faithful literary adaptation of Zola's novel L' Assamoir the fatal degeneration of a working class family is represented, which is mainly due to alcoholism.
In the role of Clémence Micheline Luccioni has her debut as a film actress.
Criticism
" René Clément has undoubtedly made with this adaptation, the most uncompromising, werkgetreueste and thereby also darkest film adaptation of a work by Zola. His production is down to the decorative details and nuances of intonation securely and accurately, the desolation of the environment becomes a critical cinematic reality. "
Awards
The film won several awards and was nominated for several other film awards. In 1957 he was awarded the British Film Academy Award, the Japanese Blue Ribbon Award, the Japanese Kinema Jumpo Prize and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film. François Périer received the British Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Actor, while Maria Schell 1956 Coppa Volpi for Best Actress was awarded at the International Film Festival in Venice. Director René Clement received the one the FIPRESCI Prize and was nominated for another for the movie for the Golden Lion.
Nominations were made in addition for film producer Agnès Delahaie at the Academy Awards in 1957 for an Oscar for best foreign language film, Maria Schell for the British Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Actress.