Review of Gervaise

A terribly tragic and horrible story of the growing degradation and poverty of a working class family allows for a raw and cynical movie, a kind of naturalist manifesto. Its characters are frustrating in their self destruction. From the start we know that they have no chance of salvation, because degradation and vice surround them and impel them at every step. For example, Gervaise, the protagonist, dreams of a ransom from poverty and seems almost to succeed, but a mere accident to sink her slowly into a physical and psychological brutalization that will reduce her to an animal level is enough. The central point of the movie is precisely this: the poor act by survival instinct and for them the laws of decorum or morality are not valid: prostitution is a way of not starving, alcoholism distracts from the ugliness of a miserable life. What makes it an excellent film, however, is not so much the message as the style: René Clement is a superb storyteller. He builds images of great descriptive power, so vivid that they almost seem to smell and taste. Gervaise is an adaptation of L'Assomoir, the seventh volume in Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle of 20 novels. Along with 'Nana' and 'Germinal' it is probably Zola's most famous. Zola's novel title is a metonymy: Father Colombe's Tavern, known as the Assommoir, was on the corners of the Rue des Poissonniers and of the Boulevard de Rochechouart. Parisian life in the 19th century remains a study for anthropologists to this day. Lower classes were grim. Their life was all but ruined by the brutality brought on, for instance, by alcoholism. Gervaise is the heroine. For a time she seems fortunate enough, but she succumbs as well. This was definitely one of the 20 best movies released in 1956, together with The Searchers Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut The Killing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Nuit et brouillard Bob le flambeur, Toute la mémoire du monde, Aparajito, Patterns, Giant, The Harder They Fall, Bigger Than Life, Voici le temps des assassins..., The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, La traversée de Paris, Written on the Wind, Attack, Friendly Persuasion.