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Gervaise

Released Nov 11, 1957 1h 56m Drama List
80% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 74% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Gervaise Macquart (Maria Schell) is a beautiful Parisian laundress and mother whose lover, Lantier (Armand Mestral) walks out on her. She eventually marries Henri Coupeau (François Perier), a roofer who has an unfortunate accident. As her now crippled husband descends into alcoholism, Gervaise tries to make ends meet on her own. Life becomes even more complicated when Lantier returns and befriends Henri. Meanwhile, the man she really loves, Goujet (Jacques Harden), is sent to prison.

Critics Reviews

View All (5) Critics Reviews
Mark Le Fanu Sight & Sound Without ever making a big deal of it, Clment's film has a physical sparkle and a pervasive sensual undercurrent. Jul 10, 2018 Full Review Arlene Croce Film Culture As a film version of Zola’s L’Assommoir, Gervaise emerges as the finest rendering of a literary classic the cinema has given us since David Lean’s Dickens films. Mar 30, 2022 Full Review Stanley Kauffmann The Reporter The best compliment one can pay the new French film Gervaise is to say that it represents faithfully the Zola novel on which it is based. Dec 16, 2021 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Grim period film of 19th century Paris that encompasses the human condition. Rated: B Feb 26, 2009 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Maria Schell (sister of Maximillian) givs a touching performance in Rene Clement's screen version of Emile Zola's grim social-realist novel, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1956. Rated: B+ Dec 29, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (10) audience reviews
Audience Member From Emile Zola's novel "L'Assommoir" which essentially means to be hammered (drunk). Rene Clement directs the realistic but tragic debasement of a working class woman at the hands of two men and the rejection by a third. The story clearly a show of how slender is the thread holding us back from catastrophe. Excellent B&W cinematography. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Émile Zola's story l'Assommoir makes a bleak film - I watched it without subtitles and my French isn't good enough to have understood everything that was said, but still found it a powerful story. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member A perfect ending to a pretty perfect movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member This film is filled with so much loathing and anger that when something even halfway decent happens you can't believe it, like Gervaise, and then before you know it, real shit goes down and your treading in bitches. Reject what makes you happy, drown in your weaknesses, and drink some booze. Now, it's not entirely bleak, hope springs from time to time, but hope is more of a sinister alien than anything else. Until the finale, where our dreams come true, and THE moment captures a million words. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review walter m Gervaise(Maria Schell) has two children, a bad leg, but no husband, living with Lantier(Armand Mestral), the father of her children. That changes when he leaves her which she finds out when her children show up at her workplace, a laundry, where some of her co-workers display less than sympathy. Defending her family's honor, Gervaise wins a ten round fight with Virginie(Suzy Delair) by TKO. Two years later, she is now married to Coupeau(Francois Perier), a roofer, and they have a daughter together. Even with that, Gervaise dreams of opening a shop of her own... "Gervaise" is a powerful and skillfully filmed movie, set amongst the working class of Paris in the 1860's(The Crimean War was in the past while Emperor Napoleon III is still in power) that attacks hypocrisy(notice the scene in the Louvre) concerning the role of women in society, advising them to to be patient in finding a husband, if they want one. This is a society where only the strong survive, and a single mistake could mean ruin, where Gervaise tries to take a different route by using her brains, even as she has been a mother since she was a teenager. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Adaptation, sans doute un peu tronquée, de "L'Assomoir" de Zola Film très moderne, car dénué d'effets de styles et de moralité typiques de son époque. Il préfère s'attacher à la réalité des personnages, reconstitue avec véracité le Paris des faubourgs de 1850, et privilégie les scènes naturalistes, ce qui en fait une vision sans doute très réaliste de la vie de nos ancêtres parisiens du XIXe siècle. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Gervaise

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Cast & Crew

The Cousins 94% 81% The Cousins Bonjour Tristesse 88% 68% Bonjour Tristesse Lola Montes 82% 77% Lola Montes Handsome Serge 100% 76% Handsome Serge Casque d'Or 100% 84% Casque d'Or Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Gervaise Macquart (Maria Schell) is a beautiful Parisian laundress and mother whose lover, Lantier (Armand Mestral) walks out on her. She eventually marries Henri Coupeau (François Perier), a roofer who has an unfortunate accident. As her now crippled husband descends into alcoholism, Gervaise tries to make ends meet on her own. Life becomes even more complicated when Lantier returns and befriends Henri. Meanwhile, the man she really loves, Goujet (Jacques Harden), is sent to prison.
Director
René Clément
Producer
Agnès Delahaie
Screenwriter
Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost
Distributor
Continental Distributing Inc.
Genre
Drama
Original Language
French (France)
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 11, 1957, Original
Release Date (DVD)
Sep 15, 2009
Runtime
1h 56m