Back to trending
Germinal

Germinal

Drama · Romance · 1993

It's mid 19th century, north of France. The story of a coal miner's town. They are exploited by the mine's owner. One day the decide to go on strike, and then the authorities repress them.

Movie details

Germinal

“Who needs God and Heaven? We can change this lousy world.”

1993 Drama · Romance 2h 40m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

It's mid 19th century, north of France. The story of a coal miner's town. They are exploited by the mine's owner. One day the decide to go on strike, and then the authorities repress them.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Germinal?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

My First Time

My First Time

Drama · 2012

Zachary is 20 years old. Dark and independent, he collects amorous conquests and school failure. Sarah is 18 years old. First class, fragile, she fills her emotional gaps with perfect control of his life. Nothing should close and yet, the year of the tank, for six months, they will live a love against which nothing can be, the true, the big one that marks a life forever.

Private Fears in Public Places

Private Fears in Public Places

Drama · 2006

Seven lonely lives in Paris: a middle-aged estate agent who believes a colleague is sending messages in video tapes she loans him; his co-worker whose Bible is close at hand in times of stress; her late-night charge, an angry, nasty bedridden old man; his son, a patient bartender; the bartender's best patron, an ex-soldier who's lost his moorings while his fiancée looks for a large flat for them; and, the estate agent's much younger sister, who answers personals and waits in cafés with a red flower pinned on her jacket. Will any connect? Can open hearts trump fears?

Lady J

Lady J

Drama · 2018

When a romance between a widow and a notorious libertine takes an unexpected turn, Mademoiselle de Joncquières becomes instrumental to one lover’s plans for revenge.

A Room in Town

A Room in Town

Drama · 1982

Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.

Luna

Luna

Drama · 2018

A film in which the director captures the beautiful and accurate qualities of reality when building the energetic portrait of a 16-year-old girl immersed in the macho culture of urban suburban south-west France, just a stone’s throw away from the nearby countryside.

Sidonie in Japan

Sidonie in Japan

Drama · 2024

Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, the city of shrines and temples. As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie: she will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again.

Chaos

Chaos

Drama · 2001

A bourgeois couple, modern yet conventional. One night by accident, a young prostitute barges into their lives. Hounded down, beaten up, threatened, she will continue to struggle, with the help of a well off lady, first for her survival-her resurrection-then for her dignity and freedom. Stormy encounters for everyone involved.

Red Soil

Red Soil

Drama · 2021

Freshly hired as a labor nurse in a chemical factory, Nour discovers that small arrangements exist between management and her father, Slimane, the staff representative, and the company's pivot. Lies about polluting discharges, hidden illnesses of employees, hidden accidents ... Nour, little by little, no longer accepts the compromises of his father to preserve the image of the company. She decides to launch the alert.

Skin

Skin

Drama · 2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Drama · 2012

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Claude Berri

Written by

Arlette Langmann · Claude Berri

Miou-Miou

Miou-Miou

'La Maheude'

Renaud

Renaud

Étienne Lantier

Jean Carmet

Jean Carmet

Vincent Maheu, aka Bonnemort

Judith Henry

Judith Henry

Catherine Maheu

Jean-Roger Milo

Jean-Roger Milo

Antoine Chaval

Gérard Depardieu

Gérard Depardieu

Toussaint Maheu

Laurent Terzieff

Laurent Terzieff

Souvarine

Court is in session

Put Germinal on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.