Customer Reviews

Germinal [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the great ones. Every bit as riveting as "Shindler's List", it is not about the Jews and The Holocaust, but a less immediate cause - coal miners in France in 1884. Deserves to be one of France's top ten films of all time. Costing $30 million, it's worth every penny. At two hours, 38 minutes, it never lost me for a second. I sat enthralled, immersed in the poverty, meanness, and ugliness of the world Berri's camera shows us. The extras he used are actual descendants of the original striking coal miners Emile Zola based his novel on. The title means germination, as in the workers planted a seed of unions and justice which would in fact sprout in the 20th century. Gerard Depardieu was really part of a large ensemble cast, each with great parts. It was especially good in showing us that there are no easy winners, or answers, in the contrast of rich and poor. The poor would be just like the rich if they had the chance, and enough to eat does not necessarily bring happiness. There was romance here, and violence, sharp and quick, darkness and light, sumptious dinner scenes, and dirty people in dank mines. This should not be buried in obscurity. A great story, passionately told

Avec les personnages croyables, la vraie dépiction de la vie pauvre, et tout ça, Germinal est un film pour toutes sortes de personnes. Gérard Dépardieu et Miou-Miou sont, comme toujours, très bons acteurs, et le réalisateur a très bien fait avec tout. C'est un film à voir!

Although this is a long slow film, it is nevertheless worth a look for its competent portrayal of life in a mining community in northern France in the 1800s (and which has definite parallels with similar lives then being lived in other communities, on both sides of the Atlantic). Claude Berri is a superb director and it is to him we owe the continuity in what could otherwise have been a ponderous film, lost in its own blackness and despair. Certainly there is plenty of coal dust about and the grime is intended to remind us not only of the harshness of the lives being led only a bare 100 years ago, but also of our own ability to work today, without raising much of a sweat. Gérard Depardieu lends incredible strength to any film and this one benefits greatly by his presence; so much so in fact, that at the moment he leaves the scene, the film immediately falters.

If there was a technical fault with this production, then for me it was the move it made from the general to the particular. While setting out to be a social document about the fight of the workers for better living conditions (and hence an emulation of Émile Zola's novel), in the latter stages it became too concerned with an actual event: the imprisonment of miners after a tunnel collapse. This didn't work for me at all, since it made the film fragmentary and incoherent. Yet overall, the film achieves its purpose and the personal drama that I didn't particularly care for may well appeal to other viewers. Claude Berri has created a number of other very fine films, including the unforgettable "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des sources," and hopefully "Germinal" will encourage you to seek them out.

Like Claud Berri's other films, including "Jean de Fleurette" and "Manon des Sources", this superb movie combines masterful storytelling and direction with superb acting. Although set in the past, the story, rich in human detail, resonates today through it's examination of basic human nature and socio-economic injustice. By portraying the complexities of the plight of poor french coal miners, "Germinal" becomes a poignant reminder of the systems of exploitation under which much of the world still toils. Kathy Lee Gifford should have watched this movie before investing in her sweatshops! Berri sheds a telling light on the intricate webs of human relations and social institutions of the France of Emile Zola. He spares no one but, while allowing all sides to present their side of the story, ends up clearly siding with the poor miners who toil, suffer, and die in the mines for wages that barely allow them to eat. The main characters come to life through superb acting, and, despite their often violent and desparate acts, they earn our sympathy. Berri finds beauty everywhere despite the suffering, and uses Zola's novel to show us that we must never give up hope. The gorgeous cinematography contributes to the remarkable re-creation of an entire world, in rich detail. The film is often beautiful to look at, but also manages to realistically portray the ugly side of poverty and exploitation. As with all great works of art, this film reminds us that justice can only be achieved through courage, dedication, and eternal vigilance. At time when so many of the rights gained at the expense of human life are being threatened, "Germinal" can serve as an inspiration to further struggles.

"Germinal" is a terribly powerful film on the virtues of social and moral justice and the inequities of an unregulated free market in which the working class is sentenced to what is essentially 'wage slavery.'

Gerard Depardue - once again - gives a brilliant performance. As the leader of the typical working class family, he is stunningly powerful and filled with character and dignity even in the midst of his suffering and wage slavery. His performance, often sad, often comical and often terribly serious and brutal, defines this film.

"Germinal" is a wonderful story. I'd recommend anyone interested in social and moral justice and concerned with the dangers of an unregulated free market in which morality is ignored to see this.

This film is based on Emile Zola's classic (and perhaps best) novel. It's a bleak story about underpaid miners and their families living in poverty while their employer makes excuses for not being able to pay them better, all the while living in wealth with his own family. The film does a brilliant job of showing this contrast between the squalor of the miners' class and the lavish lifestyle of the upper-class which employs them. The miners' work is very dangerous down there and sooner or later there are accidents and people die. Finally the miners can take it no more and they revolt, they form a strike, they even "trash" the mining plant. But this only makes matters worse. A warning to the sensitive: there are a few extremely unpleasant scenes in this film, including a dead man having his genitals cut off and stuffed down his mouth; and a pretty young woman choked to death by a murderous old imbecile.

This is a disturbing, moving, enlightening, gripping film about social injustice and inequality, and when you see how these poor people lived in old Victorian times, you will shake your head with disbelief at some of the scenes, and you will learn to count your blessings. You will also feel empathy for the plight of the poor miners and their families.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

This movie I purchased for a class. Even though it was in subtitles, I was able to follow the story. The movies were in excellent shape, played great and I will be giving them to my professor to use in future classes

This is truly a wonderful film if you wish to get a sense for class conflict in nineteenth-century Europe. I regularly show the film to my European history classes and believe it is high time that a DVD version be released.

As you know Emile Zola was the authentic father of the realism in literature. His portraits are so lucidly depicted as you were watching a film. His impeccable and descriptive style is so impressive that it is nothing difficult to get into his world.

Claude Berri had gotten an excellent rapport previously with Depardieu in Jean de Florette and Manon of Spring. In this time we will witness of the rural drama of an impoverished family leaded by Depardieu, a coal miner who begins to politicize around his fellow partners.

Somehow this novel was an anticipatory of the turbulent days to come only thirty years after, having been written in 1884.

Monumental photography and brutal realism. A winner film all the way.

It is a true mystery this movie has not translated unto DVD format.

Germination is the sowing and sprouting of an idea,hence we come to GERMINAL,a sprawling adaptation of an Emile Zola novel concerning the fledgling Coal Miner fight for worker unionization and fair employee treatment under burgeoning socialist thought in 19th century France.For information ,alone,this Claude Berri (LEAN de FLORETTE) epic is worth at least one viewing.The film seems massive in scope and impressive at first with it's theme for equality,liberty and justice;but the film suffers terribly in defining and developing all of the character subplots that even at over 2-1/2 hours the viewer will be left feeling as cold as the dank dark mines themselves.The pace of the film is ponderously slow and time frames are extremely unclear as they shift without warning.Characters are picked up and then dropped,only to reappear later after the intro of 100 additional ones!!! You will scratch your head and say "Now who was that?" The main focus,if there is one,is the family of thirteen (with Miou-Miou and Depardieu as the parents)whose very existence depends on each member contributing wages from working in the mines in order to scrape by.Death and black lung is an everyday occurance.The rich bosses live fat while the worker starves.This certainly is not a new theme,as this still goes on in the 21st century;but director Berri accurately details the plight of the working poor of the time almost too accurately in order to make the film move at all.Just as Berri did in JEAN de FLORETTE,he has chosen an extremely liesurely pace to tell the narrative,but with much of the film underground in near darkness,one longs for the relief of a scene or two of daylight! Of course,this is the point of the movie,but that doesnot mean that it makes for pleasurable viewing.Perhaps GERMINAL would have benefitted more as a mini-series to allow for more character development.The film is only on vhs currently and is an excellent print with large yellow subtitles for very easy reading.
Companion films on a similar subject would be MATEWAN ,NORMA RAE and REDS.