GERVAISE

France, 1956, 108 minutes, Black and White.
Maria Schell, Francois Perrier.
Directed by Rene Clement.

Gervaise is a film version of Emile Zola's novel of a character immersed in the squalid social conditions of late nineteenth century France. Here the atmosphere is excellently re-created and makes a great impression on the audience and makes the film worth seeing.

Maria Schell gives a fine performance as the partly likeable, partly repellent heroine who suffers in the harsh conditions in which her life has to be lived. As she is victimised by her milieu and by her enemies, we grow in pity for her and the film ends on a sadly depressing note. Rene Clement has directed such fine films as Forbidden Games, Full Sun and Rider on the Rain.

A moving version of a novel by a famous author.

1. Comment on the effectiveness of the period atmosphere of the film - e.g., the laundry, the shops, the dinner and the goose. Did the film immerse its plot and its issues in this authentic period setting?

2. What kind of a woman was Gervaise - were we supposed to like her, to pity her? How did she change during the film?

3. How did she react to being abandoned by her de facto husband, left sad and abandoned with her children? What rights did she have in the France of her time?

4. Why did the film make so much of her fight with Virginie in the laundry?

5. How did her husband and her married life change Gervaise - ambition, the shop, looking after her husband, a sense of achievement?

6. How did Virginie take over Gervaise's life?

7. Why did Gervaise fear her former de facto husband and take risks?

8. Comment on Virginie's revenge on Gervaise - ruining her by love and deception in her friendship.

9. What was the impact of the ending, the child, the drink and her mother's glazed eyes?

10. What social comment did the film offer on poverty, squalor, ambition, the love and hatred of ordinary working people?

11. Could the film be justly described as 'pessimistic realism'?