On Wed, 7 Dec 1994 07:20:20 -1000 Emily Zants said:
>        A lot of French films are about class.  The most recent out on
>VHS as well is Claude Berri's adaptation of Zola's "Germinal" with
>Depardieu--an excellent Zola adaptation embodying Zola's poetry of the
>crowds which rarely succeeds in other adaptations.  The classic would be
>Renoir's "Rules of the Game" and then almost any of Bunuel's against the
 
<smacks forehead>
 
Yes, of course, RULES OF THE GAME!  This also calls to mind much of
Renoir's other work (e.g., TONI and BETE HUMAINE and etc...).  The key,
I think, is GRAND ILLUSION, in which the end of the
aristocracy is spliced onto a story of French prisoners of war (World
War I).
 
Jean Gabin is the working class figure here, as he was so often
in '30s French films.  See, especially, his character in LE JOUR SE LEVE,
who works sandblasting machine parts.  The environment is so harsh that
flowers mistakenly delivered there are instantly killed.  They drink milk
all day to attempt to counteract the dust...
 
Amazing representation of working class life...
 
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| SCREEN-L Coordinator                                                   |
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