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Germinal

1993

Claude Berri

Gérard Depardieu, Renaud, Miou-Miou, Jean Carmet ...

6.8

3,699

Drama

	Media	Author	Review
		Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"For me, 'Germinal' provided visual and dramatic images for 19th century history events that I only understood in an abstract way. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Janet Maslin The New York Times	"Claude Berri's epic, reverential screen version of the classic Emile Zola novel about striking coal miners, is as brutally honest as a $30 million movie can be"
		James Berardinelli ReelViews	"'Germinal' is not a happy story, but it is impossible not to sense the realism that pervades the project. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times	"Pictures don’t get much bleaker than this 158-minute epic saga of the grinding existence of 19th-Century French coal miners--but they don’t get much more beautiful either."
		Lisa Nesselson Variety	"Though commendable and ambitious, Claude Berri's reverent adaptation of the Emile Zola mining saga is strangely flat and matter-of-fact. This earnest depiction of class struggle will be a struggle for many viewers as well."
		Time Out	"Depardieu, as Maheu, is solid if unspectacular; but Miou-Miou, as his long-suffering wife, is astonishing, her performance gaining strength as she loses her beloved family, one by one, to the pit."
		Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle	"Berri's film is beautiful to look at, a magnificent, grandiose slab of French history that resonates as powerfully today as it did when Zola wrote it over a century ago. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Empire	"Berri direction offers a striking vision of France, while the actors give passionate and resonant performances."

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