Emile Zola’s famous novel, “Germinal”, has been adapted for France 2. The series, in six episodes, is broadcast from this Wednesday evening (October 27, November 3 and 10).
Étienne Lantier, barely twenty, had to flee Lille after trying to organize workers in his factory. He finds refuge in Montsou and gets a job at the mine. He discovers with horror the hardness of the work at a depth of six hundred meters and the daily humiliations endured by the miners. This story, many know of its existence.
First because Emile Zola’s novel published in 1885 is one of the classics, which can be studied at school / But also because it has been adapted several times for the cinema, with the last time in the casting of Claude’s film Berri (1993), Renaud and Gérard Depardieu.
If the newspaper Marianne finds this adaptation version 2021 “heavy”, because of a facelift with “the Metoo sauce and yellow vests”, Martine Le Blond-Zola, the great-granddaughter of Émile Zola is enthusiastic by the episodes of Germinal who ‘she watched. The latter was invited on October 22 on France 5, in C à vous. According to her, Émile Zola will not look back in his grave. “The adaptation is faithful to the novel”.
Who are the actors?
After a remarkable performance in the series Mental, Louis Peres, 25, plays the major role of Etienne Lantier. Around him, Thierry Godard (Gears) and Alix Poisson (Influence games) play La Maheude and du Maheu, at the head of a family of minors overwhelmed by poverty.
We also find Sami Bouajila in the role of Deneulin, independent owner crushed by the weight of the big mining companies or Guillaume de Tonquédec (A French Affair) in the shoes of Mr. Hennebeau, owner of the mine trapped between the orders of the shareholders and the workers’ revolt which is brewing under his orders.
Where was the series filmed?
Arenberg, Oignies, Fort de Seclin, Frenes-sur-Escaut, Rombies-et-Marchipont but also Old Lille, many places from the Hauts-de-France region are honored throughout the series directed by David Hourrègue. What to fill Xavier Bertrand, president of the region and candidate for the 2022 presidential election.
As reported by the France 3 site, the shooting of the Germinal series lasted five and a half months and was done in the cold, snow and rain. An experience which Louis Peres remembers very well: “We did not need to imagine the fatigue of the miners because we ourselves had died of fatigue. Even if, of course, the miners went much further in terms of of suffering “, he indicates in remarks relayed by West France.
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