''Germinal'' is a 1993 French epic film based on the 1885 novel by

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

. It was directed by

Claude Berri Claude Berri (; 1 July 1934 – 12 January 2009) was a French film director, writer, producer, actor and distributor. Early life Born Claude Beri Langmann in Paris, Berri was the son of Jewish immigrant parents. His mother, Beila (née Bercu), w ...

, and stars Gérard Depardieu,

Miou-Miou Sylvette Herry (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Miou-Miou (), is a French actress. A ten-time César Award nominee, she won the César Award for Best Actress for the 1979 film ''Memoirs of a French Whore''. Her other films incl ...

and

Renaud Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan (), known as Renaud (), born 11 May 1952, is a French singer, songwriter and actor. His characteristically 'broken' voice makes for a very distinctive vocal style. Several of his songs are popular classics in F ...

. At the time it was the most expensive movie ever produced in France. It was the fourth most attended film of the year in France. It won the César Award for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, and was nominated for Best Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best director, Best Writing, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Music and Best Production Design. The film was selected as the French entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

66th Academy Awards The 66th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1993 and took place on March 21, 1994, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p. ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film, set in the nineteenth century, closely follows the plot of the novel, which is a realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s.

Cast

as Maheude *

as Étienne Lantier *

Jean Carmet Jean Carmet (25 April 1920 – 20 April 1994) was a French actor. Life and career Jean Carmet began working on stage and then in film in the early 1940s becoming a very popular comedic actor in his native country. He is best known internatio ...

as Vincent Maheu dit Bonnemort * Judith Henry as Catherine Maheu *

Jean-Roger Milo Jean-Roger Milo, born in Paris, is a French actor. Biography After learning his craft at the theatre with Sacha Pitoëff, Jean-Roger Milo was noticed by the cinema. He appeared in the 1982 movie Ace of Aces alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 1993, ...

as Chaval * Gérard Depardieu as Toussaint Maheu *

Laurent Terzieff Laurent Terzieff (27 June 1935, in Toulouse – 2 July 2010, in Paris) was a French actor. Biography Terzieff was the son of French ceramistBernard Fresson as Victor Deneulin * Jean-Pierre Bisson as Rasseneur *

Jacques Dacqmine Jacques Dacqmine (1923–2010) was a French stage, film and television actor.Hayward p.242 He was married four times, including to the actress Odile Versois. Partial filmography * ''Premier rendez-vous'' (1941) - Un élève du collège (uncredi ...

as Philippe Hennebeau *

Anny Duperey Anny Duperey (born Annie Legras; 28 June 1947) is a French actress, published photographer and best-selling author with a career spanning almost six decades as of 2021 and more than eighty cinema or television credits, around thirty theatre pr ...

as Madame Hennebeau *

Gérard Croce Gérard (French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitue ...

as Maigrat *

James Ard James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

as the Priest *

Frédéric van den Driessche Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to: In artistry: * Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator * Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor * Frédéric Bazille, Impressi ...

as Paul Négrel *

Annick Alane Annick Alane (5 September 1925 – 28 October 2019) was a French film, television, and theatre actress from Carnac. Filmography *1957: ''Les Truands'' (directed by Carlo Rim) *1965: ''Les Pieds dans le plâtre'' (directed by Jacques Fabbri a ...

as Madame Grégoire *

Pierre Lafont Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

as Léon Grégoire *

Yolande Moreau Yolande Moreau (born 27 February 1953) is a Belgian comedian, actress, film director and screenwriter. She has won three César Awards from four nominations. Career She made her cinematic debut with director Agnès Varda in two movies: Sept pi� ...

as La Levaque

Reception

Critical reception

The movie was well received by the critics. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 90% of 10 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 6.9/10.

Box office

The film opened at number one at the French box office with a gross of 29.6 million

French franc The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It w ...

($5.2 million) from 314 theatres in its opening week. It expanded to 456 theatres in its second week and remained at number one with a gross of 36.8 million French franc ($6.5 million) and stayed there for a third week. The film had 6,161,776 admissions in France making it the fourth most attended film of the year. The film grossed $36.1 million worldwide.

References

External links

* 1993 romantic drama films 1993 films French romantic drama films French epic films Films directed by Claude Berri Films about the labor movement Films based on works by Émile Zola Films based on French novels Films set in 1863 Films about mining Films with screenplays by Claude Berri Cockfighting in film 1990s French-language films 1990s French films {{1990s-France-film-stub