Here's a multi-award-winning French classic that is a period piece and a study of character and family in a working class setting. There's no happy ending, here, as the principal characters all gradually destroy themselves by their vices, despite each having had some promise of better things. Gervaise was the work of director René Clément.

Historical Background: Clément was born March 18th, 1913 in Bordeaux, France. He began studying architecture but gave it up to pursue a career in film, first as a cameraman and, later, in 1934, as an assistant director. He became something of a world traveler when his first experience as a director, making short documentaries, took him to such locales as Tunisia and Yemen. His first feature film was a documentary, Battle of the Rails (1946), about the French Resistance. He then collaborated with Jean Cocteau as a technical consultant on La Belle et la Bête. One of his early successes was The Walls of Malapaga (1949), which took the Academy Award for Best Foreign film in 1950. Three years later, he directed the film for which he is most remembered, Forbidden Games (1952). In London, he made The Knave of Hearts (1954), also known as Lovers Happy Lovers. Back in France, he had further successes with Gervaise (1956) and Purple Noon (1960), the latter of which had a noir flavor to it. Among his total of only fifteen feature films, his later successes included Is Paris Burning? (1966) and Rider on the Rain (1970).

The Story: The story takes place in the nineteenth century in the Northern Sector of Paris in a working class neighborhood of run down tenements. It is primarily the story of the life, loves, and tragic downfall of Gervaise Marquart (Maria Schell), a good-hearted, somewhat naïve young woman whose dream is to operate her own laundry shop. As the film opens, it is early morning and Gervaise is anxiously awaiting her lover, Auguste Lantier (Armand Mestral), who has been out all night carousing. Just as she suspects, he has spent the night with the "floosies" across the street – Adèle (Ariane Lancell) and her sister Virginie (Suzy Delair). Gervaise has always been proud to be married to the handsomest man around, especially since she is a cripple. Gervaise first became pregnant by Lantier at age fifteen and they now have two sons, Claude (Patrice Catineau) and Etienne (Christian Denhez and, later, Christian Férez). Lantier is a hatter by trade and a ladies man by design. He is lazy and undependable and when confronted by Gervaise about his philandering, he leaves her for Adèle. Later that morning, at the Laundromat, Gervaise becomes incensed at the snickering of Adèle's sister, Virginie and a fierce catfight breaks out between the two women, with Gervaise ultimately besting her opponent, pinning her face down on the wet floor, pulling up her skirt, and whacking her bottom repeatedly with a scouring brush, saying, "This is for Virginie's sister, and this is for her sister's sister."

Now alone with two children to raise, Gervaise is soon courted by Henri Coupeau (François Périer), whose family owns a metal processing business. Coupeau is a steeplejack and a roofer. Coupeau and Gervaise marry, despite her two children and over the objections of Coupeau's snobbish sister, Mme. Lorilleaux (Jany Holt). They celebrate their wedding by a trip to the Louvre, where they all seem out of place in their dirty footwear. Gervaise is still innocent enough to blush at a painting of a nude, despite having two children. One of the party is the blacksmith Goujet (Jacques Harden), who is quiet and sensitive. Gervaise takes a bit of a shine to him and, in voiceover narrative, informs us, "I wondered why they were so keen to have him at the wedding. He isn't jolly; he doesn't make them laugh. He seems to live in another world. Then, suddenly, it came to me. It must be because he's liked."

By hard work and thrift, Gervaise and Coupeau derive some happiness and prosperity, squirreling away some savings toward Gervaise's dream of opening a Laundry of her own. They also add another child to their family, Nana (Chantal Gozzi and, later, Francoise Hery). One day, Coupeau slides off a roof that he is working on, breaks his leg, and is hospitalized. The medical bills eat up the money they had been saving for Gervaise's shop, but Goujet, who has become Gervaise's most trustworthy friend, offers to lend them the money needed for renting a space for the laundry. Goujet also takes on Gervaise's son, Etienne, as his apprentice. The shop does well enough for Gervaise to hire two workers, Clémence (Micheline Luccioni) and Mrs. Fitchet, as well as an apprentice, Augustine (Yvette Cuvelier).

Coupeau, on the other hand, is unable to recover psychologically from his fall and is too afraid to continue working as a roofer. Worse, he starts hanging out and drinking heavily at the Pole-axe, a cabaret located nearby at the corner of Fishmongers St. and Rochechouart Bourlevard. He begins stealing from the money that Gervaise has been saving to repay Goujet, to support his ever-increasing need for alcohol.

Gervaise encounters Virginie, one day, and the two make amends, agreeing not to discuss their big fight in the Laundromat, years ago. Virginie is now married to Monsieur Poisson (Lucien Hubert), a police officer. Virginie informs her that Lantier and her sister are no longer together. Lantier soon returns to the neighborhood and shows up at Gervaise's birthday party, which she has organized as a grand meal, featuring a cooked goose. Oddly, Coupeau and Lantier become fast friends and drinking buddies. Coupeau even invites Lantier to take a room in their home, despite Gervaise's objections. As Coupeau sinks further and further into alcoholism, Lantier and Gervaise become lovers again. Gervaise now has two idle freeloaders to deal with and their living arrangement stains her reputation in the eyes of the neighbors. Goujet can't abide the perverse arrangement by which Gervaise is catering to the needs of both a husband and an ex-lover and Etienne complains of having too many fathers. They leave town together. Gervaise's customers start taking their business elsewhere and the laundry begins to lose money.

Having spent every last coin on booze, Coupeau succumbs to a severe episode of delirium tremens. He smashes up the Laundromat and has to be carted away in a straightjacket and ambulance. He later perishes in an asylum. Lantier now moves in with Virginie, leaving Gervaise destitute and alone, except for her daughter Nana. Gervaise begins to neglect her child and turns to drink, finally wasting away.

Themes: Zola stated his theme candidly in his prospectus to his publisher in 1868, when he introduced the series of novels that was to include the source book for Gervaise: "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world." Many of the characters in Zola's novels sink into despair as they succumb to social evils, such as alcoholism. The characters in Gervaise seem not to be mainly victims of a heartless social system, as in the films of Italian Neo-realism, but victims of their own unbridled passions and dissipations.

Production Values: Gervaise is a rather faithful adaptation of a famous novel by Emile Zola entitled L'Assommoir, which translates approximately as "Pole-axe." It is the name of the bar where Coupeau hangs out and drinks himself into oblivion. Emile Zola (1840-1902) was a great French novelist and critic and the originator of the Naturalist movement in literature. Zola's father was Italian but Zola was born in Paris and became a French citizen in 1862. His father died when he was just seven leaving the family impoverished. Supposedly, the family was so poor that Zola sometimes ate sparrows that he trapped on his window sill. He worked as a clerk, for a while, before finding success as a writer. Politically, he was strongly opposed to Napoleon III, who had subverted the Second Republic so that he could assume the title of Emperor. Following his first major novel, Thérèse Raquin, Zola commenced a long series of books, called the "Rougon-Macquart Cycle," relating the story of an extended family living under the Second Empire. This series of books ultimately extended to twenty volumes. Several Zola novels have been adapted to the screen, some more than once. Notable among those adapted are Thérèse Raquin (1867) (adapted by Marcel Carne), La Curée (1874) (adapted by Roger Vadim), La Faut de L'Abbé Mouret (adapted by Georges Franju), L'Assommoir (1877) (adapted as Gervaise), Nana (1880) (adapted by Jean Renoir), Pot-Bouille (1882) (adapted by Julien Duvivier), Germinal (1885) (adapted by Claude Berri), La Bête Humaine (1890) (adapted by Jean Renoir), and L'Argent (1891) (adapted by Marcel L'Herbier). Zola was a leftist activist and his role in fighting the Dreyfus affair (in which a Jewish army officer was falsely accused of treason in a conspiracy of anti-Semitism) led to his being sentenced to prison in 1898 (causing him to flee temporarily to England). He died under suspicious circumstances (asphyxiated by carbon monoxide in his sleep).

There's some rich veins of humor in this film. The rough-hewn working class types plodding through the Louvre is a sight to behold. One yells back to the group, "Hey, over here, this rooms even better." Monsieur Poisson carving up the goose is another riotous scene, especially when several of the guests stuff their mouths so excessively that they begin to gag on the dinner. Monsieur Poisson takes special joy in cleaning fish because he loves to step on the fish guts to make them POP!

The sets for this film are meticulous in recreating the atmosphere of a nineteenth century Parisian working class neighborhood. The cinematography seemed a bit murky to me for a film of the fifties. Georges Auric, a noteworthy classical and film composer, provided a charming soundtrack for this film. Maria Schell gives a very strong performance as Gervaise. At times she was coy and innocent; at other times resolute and strong-willed. Schell received a Best Actress award from the Venice Film Festival for this performance. Two of her other appearances were in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and Just a Gigolo (1978). François Périer also received a best actor award for his performance – from the British Academy. He gives a credible rendition of delirium tremens, near the end of the film. He's had many notable appearances, in films such as Orphée (1949), Nights of Cabiria (1957), Testament of Orpheus (1959), Le Samourai (1967), Z (1969), and Stavisky (1974). I was very impressed by Suzy Delair as Virginie. She later appeared in Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She did a marvelous keeping me wondering whether her intentions toward Gervaise in the middle part of the film were those of a friend or an enemy.

Bottom-Line: This film received multiple international awards, including Best Foreign Film from the New York Film Critics' Circle, Best Film from the British Academy, and an Academy Award nomination in the Best Foreign Film category. I enjoyed the period authenticity and the performances in this film but I was left feeling that the story itself was all rather pointless. During most of the film, I was assuming that the story line was pretty good because it wasn't overly obvious (like so many films) as to where the tale was leading. Then, at the end, it suddenly became apparent that it just wasn't leading anywhere at all! The only moral I can draw from the narrative is that people can destroy their lives by behaving like morons – by idleness, by drinking too much, by cheating on their spouses, and by ignoring their children. But I already knew that and I imagine so too do most of those who nevertheless proceed to ruin their lives by one or more flaws of character or personality. I'm going to give this film four stars as a compromise. Five stars for excellent characters, performances, sets, and music but three stars for adding up to something too darn close to pointlessness. Gervaise is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 121 minutes.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older