The French praise the adaptations for the small and the big screen of Germinal and D’Lost illusions, two classics of 19th century literature that resonate with today’s society.
The first two episodes of the series inspired by Emile Zola’s novel, broadcast on France 2 on October 27, obtained the best audience of the evening with 4.412 million viewers, or nearly 20% of viewers in front of their screens that evening.
And the adaptation to the cinema of Honoré de Balzac’s book recorded a fine performance for its first week of theatrical release: more than 230,000 spectators, a more than honorable place against the American blockbusters.
Written in the 19th century, these two works remain surprisingly modern, underline the literary specialists interviewed by AFP. At the time, the industrial revolution upset the balance in France. At the start of the 21st century, it is the digital wave that is shattering old economic and social models.
“In Germinal, it is the demands for social justice that can still be topical, in a world which is certainly no longer that of the cleavage between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, but where the mechanisms of domination are still very present “, according to AFP Andrea Del Lungo, professor of French literature of the nineteenth at Sorbonne University.
Like the book published in 1885, the television series pays homage to the proletarians, minors, crushed by the capitalist system. The screenwriter, Julien Lilti, told recently on France Inter that he had started to write the scenario in full movement of the yellow vests, which has “nourished (s) on writing and directing work”.
Published in 1837, Lost illusions also addresses contemporary themes through the rise of Lucien de Rubempré in the world of the press: the tyranny of influencers, the power of finance, the poison of rumor. “Balzac understood everything. That modern society would be a bitter struggle and that everything would be economic, that money would be the new code. He described the matrix of the modern world.”director Xavier Giannoli told AFP.
If we include the adaptation ofEugenie Grandet by Balzac (released a few weeks ago at the cinema), we observe in all three cases “a reflection on the condition of women, desperate in the 19th century, which resonates with current events”, adds Andrea Del Lungo, echoing the #MeToo movement in particular.
The characters use a language very close to ours, with repartees that we could pronounce today. Thus, in the second episode of Germinal, the director of the Compagnie des Mines de Montsou notes that “the economy has globalized”. “Some countries do not hesitate to lower the cost of production by taking labor as an adjustment variable”, he said.
Lost illusions he makes winks to the news, such as this prophecy, “one day we will have a government banker”, or this mention of a duck (or false news) “not yet chained”.
Zola and Balzac are among the French authors most transposed to cinema and television. Their books belong to the French cultural heritage, they have been read and studied by several generations of middle and high school students: the films can therefore count on a crowd of curious people wishing to discover the adaptation. For those who grew up with computer and smartphone screens, the filmed version allows “to learn about these long and difficult novels in a short time”, underlines the president of the Society of Friends of Balzac, Anne-Marie Baron. An incentive to discover the literary text, she hopes.
And these adaptations are intended to be exported. “These novelists are very studied, translated and perhaps more appreciated in other countries than at home”, notes Anne-Marie Baron. “Their subject is a part of the history of France, notes Andrea Del Lungo. But there are features of universality that make them perfectly understandable to a foreign audience. “