Based on Emile Zola's novel, an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s.
Practical Effects
Massive reconstructed mining village with functioning elevators.
Direction
Capellani's crowd control in strike scenes rivals Griffith.
Production
Authentic coal-dirt makeup that actors wore for months.
Director
Albert Capellani
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1885 novel was so incendiary that booksellers refused to stock it; the 1913 film caused actual riots in working-class Parisian neighborhoods.
Director Albert Capellani shot the flooding sequence by literally flooding a constructed mine with ice-cold water; actress Sylvie nearly drowned when her costume tangled in debris.
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