French postcard by Croissant, Paris, no. 3678. Photo: Film Pathé. Publicity still for Les victimes de l'alcoolisme / Alcohol and Its Victims (Ferdinand Zecca, 1902). Caption: Laziness creates misery.
Les victimes de l'alcoolisme / Alcohol and Its Victims (1902) is a four-minute short, directed and written by Ferdinand Zecca. It was based on Émile Zola's novel 'L'Assommoir', and the first Zola adaptation ever. Les victimes de l'alcoolisme / Alcohol and Its Victims tells a moral story of what happens to a man if he starts to drink and gamble. Bob Lipton at IMDb: "This is a very advanced film for 1902, being offered in five scenes, on elaborately painted sets. It was probably not intended solely for movie programs, but for anti-booze lectures, Chautauquas, and conferences."
Big French photo card by Cinéma Pathé. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jacques Normand as Jean in Les victimes de l'alcool / Victimes de l'alcoolisme / In the Grip of Alcohol (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), co-written by Bourgeois, on this card indicated as 'Mr. B. Gérard'. Because of drinking alcohol on his job, Jean is fired from his office - the start of his downfall.
The Pathé production Les victimes de l'alcool (1911) is not based on 'L'assommoir', but is written and directed by Gérard Bourgeois. The film narrates the downfall of Jean and his family, all because of the family's father's fatal alcohol addiction. Jean leads a happy middle-class life with his wife and two little children. Yet, one night, his colleagues take him to a bar where he gets completely drunk. His behaviour when coming home abhors his wife and children. When he starts to secretly drink at his office, this is noted, and he is fired. Jean's downfall starts: jobless, Jean and his family are evicted and end up in a squalid attic. Over the years, Jean's alcoholism increases, and the family is penniless. The son, Jacques, has grown up and noticed the family's needs (his young sister is ill). He goes to a den where he is lured into a gang of thieves. When, after the theft, he is arrested before the eyes of his mother, Jean can only laugh about it. The daughter dies of her illness, while the mother kills herself out of despair. Coming home, the landlord finally makes it clear to Jean that it is all his fault. In the bar, he goes berserk. He ends up in an asylum, having gone completely mad.
Big French photo card by Cinéma Pathé. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jacques Normand as Jean in Les victimes de l'alcool (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). The downfall of Jean and his family: they are evicted. Marie Berthe as Jean's wife, Lascombe as little Jacques.
Big French photo card by Cinéma Pathé. Photo: Pathé Frères. Paul Laurent as young Jacques in Les victimes de l'alcool (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). Young Jacques, Jean's grown-up son, offers to become a thief to help the destitute family. Yet, he will be arrested after a theft.
Big French photo card by Cinéma Pathé. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jacques Normand as Jean in Les victimes de l'alcool (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). On the bed, Jean's daughter (La petite Lily), who has died because of his neglect. On the floor, his wife, who in her despair has committed suicide (Marie Berthe).
L'Assommoir
'L'Assommoir', published as a serial in 1876 and in book form in 1877, is the seventh novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series 'Les Rougon-Macquart'. From 24 February 1905, 'L'Assommoir' was staged as a play at the Parisian Théâtre Moncey, 50, Avenue de Clichy. The journal La Presse of 26 February 1905 lauded the play and the performances, in the first place by M. Pouctal as Coupeau, Gabrielle Fleury as Gervaise, and M. Lemarchand as Lantier. Also praised were Mlle Delorme, Mme Gaudy, and M. Berthon as Lorilleux. Of course, there were tears, but also many laughs over the drunkards Mes-Bottes, Bec-Salé, and Bibi-la-Grillade, played by Mori, Prika and Martin. The first night took place before a packed crowd. M. Pouctal was the later film director and actor Henri Pouctal, who started his career as a stage actor in the 1890s. Yet, the series of postcards below, which were printed by Helmlinger in 1905, shows photos from the first stage adaptation of 'L'Assommoir' in 1879, starring Hélène Petit as Gervaise. These original photos were made by the famous photographer Nadar. Two years after Émile Zola published his novel, 'L'Assommoir' (1877) was adapted for the stage by William Busnach and Octave Gastineau, with the help of Zola. The play was performed at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique. The premiere took place on 18 January 1879 and was a great success. Afterwards, the play was often re-staged, in and outside of France.
'L'Assommoir' is principally the story of Gervaise Macquart, who is featured briefly in the first novel in the series, 'La Fortune des Rougon', running away to Paris with her shiftless lover Lantier to work as a washerwoman in a hot, busy laundry in one of the seedier areas of the city. L'Assommoir begins with Gervaise and her two young sons being abandoned by Lantier, who takes off for parts unknown with another woman, Adèle, the sister of Virginie, who becomes Gervaise's rival. Though at first Gervaise swears off men altogether, eventually she gives in to the advances of Coupeau, a teetotal roofer, and they are married. The marriage sequence is one of the most famous set-pieces of Zola's work; the account of the wedding party's impromptu and chaotic trip to the Louvre is one of the novelist's most famous passages. Through a combination of happy circumstances, Gervaise can realise her dream and raise enough money to open her own laundry. The couple's happiness appears to be complete with the birth of a daughter, Anna, nicknamed Nana (the protagonist of Zola's later eponymous novel).
However, later in the story, we witness the downward trajectory of Gervaise's life from this happy high point. Coupeau is injured in a fall from the roof of a new hospital he is working on, and during his lengthy convalescence, he takes first to idleness, then to gluttony, and eventually to drink. In only a few years, Coupeau becomes a vindictive, wife-beating alcoholic, with no intention of trying to find more work. Gervaise struggles to keep her home together, but her excessive pride leads her to several embarrassing failures, and before long, everything is going downhill. Gervaise becomes infected by her husband’s newfound laziness and, in an effort to impress others, spends her money on lavish feasts and accumulates uncontrolled debt.
The home is further disrupted by the return of Lantier, who is warmly welcomed by Coupeau, by this point losing interest in both Gervaise and life itself, and becoming seriously ill. The ensuing chaos and financial strain are too much for Gervaise, who loses her laundry shop and is sucked into a spiral of debt and despair. Eventually, she too finds solace in drink and, like Coupeau, slides into heavy alcoholism. All this prompts Nana - already suffering from the chaotic life at home and getting into trouble daily - to run away from her parents' home and become a casual prostitute. Gervaise’s story is told against a backdrop of a rich array of other well-drawn characters with their own vices and idiosyncrasies. Notable amongst these is Goujet, a young blacksmith, who spends his life in unconsummated love for the hapless laundress. Eventually, sunk by debt, hunger and alcohol, Coupeau and Gervaise both die. The latter’s corpse lies for two days in her unkempt hovel before it is noticed by her disdaining neighbours. 'L'Assommoir' was a huge commercial success and helped establish Zola's fame and reputation throughout France and the world.
Translators have approached the title 'L'Assommoir' in different ways. Wikipedia: "The noun is a colloquial term popular in late nineteenth-century Paris, referring to a shop selling cheap liquor distilled on the premises where the working classes could drown their sorrows cheaply and drink themselves senseless. It is adapted from the French verb 'assommer', meaning to stun or knock out. Perhaps the closest equivalent terms in English are the slang adjectives 'hammered' and 'plastered'. English translators have rendered it as The Dram Shop, The Gin Palace, Drunkard, The Drinking Den or simply 'The Assommoir'.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Gil Naza as Coupeau, Hélène Petit as Gervaise, and Louise Magnier as their daughter Nana. This card and all the others in the Helmlinger series show pictures of the first stage adaptation of 1879, starring Hélène Petit as Gervaise, Gil Naza as Coupeau, and Angelo as Goujot. The original photos were by Nadar.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. The drunkards Bibi-la Grillade (Mousseau), Mes-Bottes (Dailly) and Bec-Salé (Courtès).
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. The drunkards Bibi-la Grillade (Mousseau), clearly broke, and Bec-Salé (Courtès).
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Gervaise (Hélène Petit) and Goujet (M. Angelo).
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Gervaise (Hélène Petit) and Goujot (M. Angelo) at Gervaise's party.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Coupeau (Gil Naza) has turned into an alcoholic madman.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. The rivalry between Gervaise (right) and Virginie (Lina Munte).
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. Hélène Petit as the elder, degraded Gervaise. She asks Virginie (Lina Munte) and her lover, Lantier, for help, but they brutally reject her. But Poisson, her husband, avenges himself on the adulterous couple.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. The washed-out Gervaise (Hélène Petit), found by Goujot (M. Angelo). Gervaise dies of hunger and thirst in the arms of Goujot, who has just exited the restaurant where they celebrated his wedding.
French postcard, printed by P. Helmlinger & Co., Nancy, for Théâtre Moncey, where 'L'Assommoir' was performed from 24 February to 3 March 1905. Photo: Nadar. The death of Gervaise (Hélène Petit).
Sources: Bob Lipton (IMDb), Gallica (French), Fondation Jerome Seydoux, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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