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MPAA Rating
R
Running Time
2 hours, 38 minutes
Country Belgium, France, Italy
Studio Alternative Films, DD Productions, France 2 Cinema, La Région Nord Pas de Calais, Nuova Artisti Associati, Renn Productions
More info on IMDb.com
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Genre: Drama, Society, Period Piece
Plot: GERMINAL is a lavish adaptation of Emile Zola's social reformist 1884 epic novel about striking coal miners in the Le Voreux mines. Gerard Depardieu stars as Maheu, a simple miner who struggles with his wife Maheude (Miou-Miou) and their seven children to keep from starving while toiling in the grim and deadly mines of Le Voreux. The Maheu family live in great hardship, beginning work in the pits of the mines as small children and continuing to work until elderly and crippled. When Etienne Lantier (played by French singer Renaud II), a Belgian outsider, comes to town looking for work, he is befriended by Maheu and hired alongside the hard-working family. A literate and sensitive thinker, Etienne begins to speak of social change and the grave injustice of the coal mines and eventually convinces Maheu to help him organize a miner's union and a subsequent strike. Ultimately, Maheu and Etienne lead the local peasants in a violent revolt against the wealthy owners of the mine who live in great decadence and finery.Director Berri frequently cuts between the wealthy villas and lavish meals of the French aristocracy to the deep hellish pits of the mines, where the workers earn just enough money to keep from starving, in order to instill the obvious need for social change. The
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Related Movies:
- version of Germinal (1963)
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 Discussion forum for this movie
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| Directed by |
Claude Berri
Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, A Housekeeper |
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| Written by |
Claude Berri
Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra | |
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| Cast |
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 | Miou-Miou
The Eighth Day, The Mad Adventures of 'Rabbi' Jacob, Going Places | Renaud
Crime Spree, Années Zénith, Les, Soirée télévie 2005 | Jean Carmet
My Mother's Castle, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, Buffet froid | | | | |
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