Rose-Marie Perreault bursts the screen in “Germinal”, faithful television adaptation of the novel by Émile Zola which was a hit in France last fall during its first broadcast.
The actress from Trois-Rivières accurately embodies Catherine Maheu, this mining worker for whom Étienne Lantier (Louis Peres), the main character, has a crush. Their love story is tragic. Although she loves him too, Catherine is taken aback by Antoine Chaval (Jonas Bloquet), a rough worker who is just as boorish with her.
In the midst of a crisis, when wages were reduced, Étienne Lantier led the miners on strike, while Chaval did everything to harm him.
The scale of the series, the expectations of the public and the monumental aspect of the work were enough to make Rose-Marie Perreault dizzy, who was paralyzed as she approached her first scenes, she confided to the QMI Agency. “But, once the first scene was done, I was able to start to breathe, get comfortable and just live it in work and in pleasure,” she added.
The television adaptation “Germinal”, whose title refers to the awakening of working-class consciousness, is part of the register of mega-productions where each episode cost around 2 million euros (approximately $3 million CAN). An especially wonderful sum to buy time.
“On the set, if we shot two scenes a day, we had time to rehearse them, to talk about them, to question ourselves and to change our minds. For an actress, it’s really a significant and much appreciated luxury, ”said the actress.
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Feminist proofreading and preparation
If in Zola’s work Catherine Maheu is sometimes eclipsed, in the adaptation by David Hourrègue, the female characters are more present.
“We are at the time when the patriarchy completely dominates society. Catherine makes choices in the series where we say to ourselves today that these are not feminist choices, but if we put her in context at her time, we can understand that she had so many constraints that she could not allow himself to denounce his aggressor, or to revolt. It is a question of survival to resign oneself to one’s situation,” explained Rose-Marie Perreault.
Catherine’s aggression, forced silence and trauma will also be explored more fully in the series than in the book.
“It was a preparation where, myself, I asked myself a lot of questions about me, as a woman in 2022, and what it meant to be a woman in 1885”, she added. .
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The actress who holds the title role in “La Cordonnière”, by François Bouvier, lived five months in France during which she kept her sharp accent, in particular to perfect it. A follower of French films, she was already working on it before getting the role, but did not stop refining it once there.
She was also nourished by documentaries and readings relating to mining work, to immerse herself in her acting universe. She also exchanged with certain extras, who were more than 2000 on the set, established in the north of France. in former mining villages, many of whom were sons, grandsons or granddaughters of miners.
Rose-Marie Perreault, who says she wants to work where the great projects will be, has not ruled out the idea of trying her luck again in France. However, it remains deeply rooted in its roots: Quebec cinema.
In addition to holding the title role of “La Cordonnière”, a novel adapted from the same title by Pauline Gill, which should be released this year, she will play in another Quebec film which will be released this summer, the project of which has not yet been announcement.
The “Germinal” series will be broadcast on ICI Télé starting this Saturday at 9 p.m., but it will also be posted the same day on ICI TOU.TV EXTRA.
Another Quebecer in the series
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The singer-songwriter and actor Aliocha Schneider also plays in “Germinal”.
He plays Paul Négrel, the nephew of the director of the Compagnie des Mines de Montsou, where the miners work, the Maheu family, Chaval and Lantier.
He’s one of the company’s mining engineers. He is engaged to Cécile Grégoire, who comes from a bourgeois family, and the lover of his uncle’s wife.