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Too much of everything

So much average

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Germinal (1993): Dir: Claude Berri / Cast: Renaud, Gerard Depardieu, Judith Henry, Jean-Roger Milo, Jean Carmet: Effective look at mining conditions in the early century with Renaud arriving in town looking for work. He is befriended by Gerard Depardieu who is married and has several children. His daughter quickly catches the attention of Renaud but she is raped by another miner and forced to live with him. Realistically told but its outcome is predictable. Fine directing by Claude Berri with Renaud terrific as the underdog struggling in the mines. Berri is a famed French director who is fortunately backed with superb casting. Depardieu easily outshines everyone with a scene stealing performance that often uplifts the tone within a dark and gloomy atmosphere that they find themselves struggling with. He plays a loving and caring husband and father yet he easily steals scenes with the odd humour as well. Judith Henry is memorable as his daughter who is the victim of rape and struggles to escape the inner shame. Jean- Roger Milo is also featured among the stellar cast. Flawed with familiarity, as in its budget takes away from it. Independent film can and have often gotten around this but with Germinal it just seems like something is lacking. It counters this by portraying mining conditions with great realism as well as the struggle to survive and maintain unity. Score: 7 / 10

Germinal is a film about the workers of a mining company in the North of France, during the seventies of the nineteenth century. it was the time of the First Socialist International, and the rise of the workers movement. The story is based on the book by Emile Zola, with the same title. Although Zola was not a socialist, he sketches a debunking image of the misery and poverty of the common people. I bought the DVD on a visit in Brussels, the bilingual capital of Belgium. Surprisingly the Frenchspeaking minority hardly masters the Dutch language, and this is reflected in the DVD, that lacks any subtitles (not even English ones). Being a Dutchman, my French is rather poor, so it would be unjustified for me to comment on the dialogs. However, the pictures and now and then an understandable passage are clear enough to convey the developments. The mining company operates still in the old tradition, with a true capitalist entrepreneur and owner. The mine is dangerous, and the economic crisis forces the wages to ever lower levels. The miners of both sexes are primitive folks, and we know from contemporary reports that the harsh conditions greatly contributed to their dissoluteness (which of course is less their fault than that of the then employers and system). Naturally they become rebellious, and start a strike fund. A roaming socialist agitator arrives, and becomes engaged in the mining company. When the wages are once again lowered, the miners go on strike. Their financial resistance is low (unions were scarce, and strikes were usually started impulsively), and soon hunger and distress break the workers solidarity. Some of them resume their work, which escalates the situation. The rage of the miners and the revolutionary agitation mix into an explosive atmosphere. The strikers assault the mine, make havoc, and lynch the local storekeeper (who is even castrated by the mob). Now the army is called in to occupy the mine, and protects the non-strikers. When the strikers start to throw stones at the soldiers, they fire into the crowd killing tens of people. For the moment the order is restored, and work is resumed. The ordeal continues, when a bore penetrates the galleries and causes explosions in the installations. Again lots of people are killed. The film follows one particular mining family, who is approximately decimated during the unfolding course of things. Finally the grandfather strangles a daughter of the mine-owner, who visits their house in order to bring relief. Indeed the contrast between the miners' misery and the capitalists' abundance could hardly be more profound. In spite of the at times shocking violence used by the miners, one has to sympathize with them. It was the period of forced capital accumulation, in which the wealthy people were obsessed by economic growth due to capital investments and in the process destroyed the level of consumption and well-being of the people. This film is a good reminder, even without understandable dialogs.

A straightforward, generally fast-moving, recounting of a gripping social struggle, portrayed without any special effects for special effects' sake (though I think there was plenty of unobtrusive special effects), with the emphasis always on the dramatic line; good acting by all concerned; generally plain, clear photography that served the story-telling and not some "artsy" vision--all these added up, for me, to an enthuasiastic vote of "ten." Cannot praise this film enough. No, it's not some summit of art, but it's a textbook example of how to tell a story, keep the audience's attention, and honor the dramatic basis of the project instead of indulging in "artistic" whims and triviliaties that will appear dated in five or six years.I'll be watching this one again. (By the way, I found the distant shot of the striking workers marching across the plain especially moving. And I had the feeling throughout the film that this was how things really looked at that terrible period of French, and European, history.)

"Germinal", based on a novel by Emile Zola, is an epic film which studies the anatomy of a strike in a 19th century French coal mine. During it's 2.5+ hour run time, the film shows the wretchedness of coal miners, their deplorable living conditions, their attempts to organize, negotiations, strike, rioting, police suppression, sabotage, etc. The story is woven around a handful of characters who represent the forces at work; management, union, profiteers, scabs, etc.About Zola's novel, Havelock Ellis wrote: "It was neither amusing enough nor outrageous enough to attract the multitude". So it is with the film which emphasizes realism over romanticism and exists more as a study of a timeless social/political issue than pure commercial entertainment. A must see for cinema buffs but not likely have broad commercial appeal.