Gervaise
Directed by Rene Clement
Written by Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost from a novel by Emile Zola
1956/France
Agnes Delahaie Productions etc.
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Gervaise Macquart Coupeau, une blanchisseuse douce et courageuse: Morning came and he still hadn’t returned. He’d been out all night. It was the first time. I was so proud to have the handsomest guy around, me, the gimp.[/box]
If you are prepared for real tragedy and depression, this might be for you. It is certainly well made and acted.
Gervaise (Maria Schell) has a limp. She considers herself lucky to have caught Lantier, a chronic womanizer. They have been living together for eight years and have two sons. As the movie begins, Lantier has stayed out all night. He taunts Gervaise by wearing a flower given to him by the other woman. But Gervaise ends up forgiving him and he promises to go to buy her something for lunch. She goes to the local laundry to do the family wash. She cannot even afford soap. She ends up getting into a terrific brawl with Virginie (Suzy Delair), the sister of the other woman. By the time this is over, her children come to announce Lantier has packed up and left.
Segue to some time later. Gervaise gets work as a laundress and marries Coupeau (Francois Perier), a neighbor who works as a roofer. They have a little daughter and Gervaise dreams of having her own laundry business. Then Coupeau falls off a roof. The accident somehow triggers his alcoholism and things go downhill from there. Way downhill.
I have covered at most one-half of the tragic plot above. We follow the destruction of a couple of human beings in one of the most hopeless stories I have ever seen. It was absolutely not for me at the time. I have no complaints whatsoever about the actual movie making.
Gervaise was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film, Maria Schell and Francois Perier won numerous international awards.
