MartinHafer "Gervaise" is a film based on the story "L'Assommoir" by Emile Zola. It had been filmed several times before (these were mostly silent versions) and this is the most recent version of his story. It's all about a rather pathetic poor lady (Gervaise--Maria Schell) and her horrible choices of men. It is very well made but not exactly a pleasant film. In fact, at times, it's a bit painful to watch.When the film begins, Auguste leaves Gervaise for another woman-- leaving her with children to raise. Eventually she marries Coupeau and their life seems to be going well. However, when the husband gets injured on the job, he degenerates to alcoholism and makes Gervaise's life completely miserable. The husband even knowingly brings his new friend, Auguste, home to live with them---knowing that long ago he was his wife's lover! At the same time, Gervaise has fallen for the only decent man in her life, the blacksmith. What's next in this tale of misery? See the film...if you dare.This story is both about the wretched lives of the urban poor, as they are exploited, and about the disintegration of the morals of this class as well. It's not exactly pleasant viewing and is also clearly a lesson about the ills of drink--a very popular message when the film was made and remade several times during the silent era. Nearly everyone in this film is nasty and selfish and despite all this is IS well made. The acting, sets and direction by René Clément are all quite good...but you have to be willing to sit through nearly two hours of wretchedness and who wants to do that?!

kidboots I've always felt "La Assommoir" by Zola, the most depressing, heart wrenching book I have ever read. It was almost as if Zola was saying, if you are decent, hard working and try to better yourself and you are a woman, your life will be paved with misery. It is one book I have never been able to reread. Initially, in the book Gervaise is seen as a lovely young mother determined to do her best at honest work for her children as her horrible lover leaves her to escape family responsibility. She meets a roofer Henri, who worships her - and it is all down hill from there. In keeping with Zola's character tie-ins (most of his books were linked), one of her children is Nana, the subject of Zola's most acclaimed book. For some strange reason I felt drawn to the movie - I wanted to see if there was any hope or brightness that I had missed in the book.This amazing movie starts with a burst of life - a huge fight in the laundry among hot, sudsy buckets of water between Gervaise and Virginie, the sister of the woman who has run off with Gervaise's lover, Lanier, with whom she has had two children. The viciousness and the brutality of the fight is shocking. Gervaise is triumphant, but it is one of the last times she does triumph.Eventually Gervaise marries - to a good man Henri, who adores her and they eventually have a little girl, Nana. There is also another Zola reference to Therese Raquin, when Henri's sister comments on Gervaise's striking resemblance to Therese "the one who died of consumption". Gervaise longs to have her own laundry but on the day her dreams are to be realised Henri has a horrible accident. He falls off a roof and because of Gervaise's insistence on nursing him herself (instead of taking him to the free hospital) it takes all their savings and prolongs his recovery to six months. At the end of which Henri is a hopeless alcoholic and permanently unemployable. Through the efforts of their good friend Goujet,a blacksmith (who is in love with Gervaise) she is able to open her own laundry but Henri when he is not being a nuisance in the shop, has taken to pawning the laundry items for drinking money. This is the beginning of the end - Virginie comes back to the street with her husband Mr. Fish, who is a policeman and even though she warmly embraces Gervaise and wants to put the fight behind them, she is a false friend and a troublemaker. Lanier then turns up and the drunken Henri makes a companion of him, even inviting him to take up residence with them as a permanent boarder. Definitely not as black as the book which goes into minute detail of Gervaise's descent into drunkenness, even ending with her living in the tiny closet that Old Bru lived in. During this time Goujet has gone to prison for inciting the impoverished workers to fight for an extra 5 cents a week. When he comes out and sees the living arrangements between her and Henri and Lanier, he wants nothing more to do with her but agrees to take on her eldest son as an apprentice. The film ends with Gervaise sitting numbly in the tavern while Nana, now a child of the streets, makes herself pretty with grubby ribbons. Maria Schell is just perfect, exactly how I imagined Gervaise would be but for a more uplifting Zola book I would recommend "Ladies Delight", about a young woman who works her way up (virtuously!!) to a powerful position in a department store.

zetes Maria Schell plays the titular character in this film adaptation of Emile Zola's novel L'Assomoir. This is like the saddest movie ever. I seriously wept for twenty minutes after it finished, and every time I think of it I start to tear up again. Schell plays a poor washerwoman with little luck in men. Her first man, who never married her, leaves her with two young boys for another woman. Her next man, her first husband (played by Francois Perier), becomes a slave to wine, chronically unemployed and defying his wife and family at every turn for another drink. Sure, this is your typical suffering woman narrative, but, Hell, women have suffered throughout history, and this is a downright powerful story. The characterizations are very complex, and every actor in the film is absolutely perfect. L'Assomoir came in the middle of a cycle of twenty novels. Gervaise's daughter, Nana, was the focus of a later novel in the series (Jean Renoir adapted that novel, called Nana, in 1926).

Nicholas Rhodes 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 !