Germinal (1963)
Directed by Yves Allégret

Film Review

Given its preeminent position in French literature, it's surprising that before Yves Allégret made this film there had not been an adaptation of Émile Zola's 1885 novel Germinal since the early years of the silent era.  Albert Capellani's silent masterpiece Germinal (1913) is still regarded as the best screen version of Zola's novel and the film's reputation may have been the overriding reason why subsequent directors were reluctant to undertake the daunting prospect of adapting Zola's sprawling social epic.  Allégret's film is a slick and moody production but it pales in comparison with Capellani's film, although it is slightly more bearable than Claude Berri's wildly overblown version Germinal (1993), which made no secret of the fact that it was the most expensive French film ever made at the time.

It is interesting to ponder how much more powerful Allégret's Germinal might have been had it been made a decade earlier when Allégret was a committed auteur rather than the hack director he became in later years.  By the time he made the film, he was a spent force, it being over a decade since he had turned out his last notable film, Les Orgueilleux (1954).  Immediately before Germinal, Allégret disgraced himself with what is widely considered his worst film, Konga Yo (1962), so critics were not exactly tripping over themselves to praise the film that followed.  By now, the French New Wave was stealing most of the attention and even if Allégret had turned out an unequivocal masterpiece it's unlikely it would have been given its due.

Germinal certainly isn't Yves Allégret's worst film but, of the fifteen or so lesser works he put his name to after Les Orgueilleux, it is easily one of the most watchable, a faithful but not overly indulgent adaptation of a great work of literature.  Most impressive is the set design (the work of Lucien Aguettand and Jacques Paris), which provides an astonishingly authentic reconstruction of mine workings and a mining community in the mid-19th century.  Jean Bourgoin's cinematography lends much to the doom-laden mood of the piece but only really comes into its own in the cramped scenes set in the mines deep beneath the ground - these are the most poignant and visually arresting the film has to offer.  Above ground, the film plays mostly as a tepid melodrama, robbed of impact by a dull and verbose screenplay and some equally bland performances.

Most famous for playing Catherine Deneuve's husband in Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour (1967), Jean Sorel has a naturally aloof bourgeois allure that makes him a strange casting choice for the role of the agent provocateur Étienne Lantier.  Like his attractive co-star Berthe Granval, he looks as if he has just stepped out of a beauty parlour, and needless-to-say neither actor is convincing as a half-starved miner.  Of the principals, only Claude Brasseur and Bernard Blier look like characters Zola created rather than over-groomed substitutes parachuted in by a producer who is more concerned with the film's marketability than its authenticity.

Too half-hearted to do justice to Zola's novel, Allégret's Germinal is mostly a disappointment, although it does periodically redeemed itself with its dramatic set-pieces, all of which are staged and photographed with a meticulousness not seen since the director's early film triumphs.  What is missing is the depth of human suffering and sense of injustice that Zola conveys so powerfully and so poignantly in his writing.  It is as if Allégret is too afraid to shock or just unwilling to return to the abject bleakness of his early great films.  His film might well have been made a decade earlier - it has that deadening complacency and detachment that is typical of literary adaptations of 1950s French cinema.  No wonder the film is all but forgotten.  Zola's novel deserves far better than this - not a mountain of cash squandered on a soulless cinematic spectacle, but genuine involvement with its themes of exploitation and social injustice that continue to strike a chord.

Film Synopsis

France, 1863.  Etienne Lantier is a railway worker who loses his job as a result of his union activities.  He finds work at the mines in Voreux and lodges with the Maheu family.  The work is hard, dangerous and badly paid.  Like many other families in the area, the Maheus are in debt.  Fortunately, Maigrat, the grocer, offers them credit from time to time.  The mine manager Hennebeau always wants more from his workers for less pay.  There is an on-going feud between Hennebeau and his engineer Negrel, who is Madame Hennebeau's lover.  Lantier is in love with his landlord's daughter Catherine, but he has a rival in Chaval, an old friend of Catherine who believes he has a stronger claim to her.  Things come to a head when Hennebeau refuses to negotiate with the miners.  The latter have no choice but to go on strike.  The situation soon gets out of hand...