THROUGH THE MILL (LA MÉLANCOLIE OUVRIÈRE)

Monday, April 30 – 2:00 pm – Truffaut Theatre

International Premiere |TV Movie | France | Drama, Epic Movie | 90 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Gérard Mordillat
Written by: Gérard Mordillat, Philippe Sainteny
Based on the novel by: Michelle Perrot
Cinematography: François Catonne
Film Editing: Sophie Rouffio

Original Score: Jean-Claude Petit
Produced by: Jean-Pierre Guérin (JPG Films), Arte France
Cast: Virginie Ledoyen (Lucie Baud), Philippe Torreton (Auda), François Cluzet (Pierre), François Morel
International Sales: France TV Distribution

Original Broadcasting: Arte, 2018
 

Three-time César-nominee Virginie Ledoyen (Cold Water, A Single Girl) plays the valiant Lucie Baud, the first 20th century female union organizer and feminist activist in France. Born into a family of peasants in 1870, Lucie entered the silk mill, as an apprentice, at 12. She married at 20 and was widowed soon thereafter. Working 12 hours a day and struggling to support two children on her meager salary, Lucie is devastated when bosses decide to increase working hours and slash wages. Fired up and supported by unionist Auda (Philippe Torreton), who educates her politically and woos her romantically, she launches her first major strike in 1905. An exceptional, intelligent, courageous woman, Lucie throws herself, body and soul, into the struggle against the slavery of women. A turn-of-the-century Norma Rae!

Gérard Mordillat | Adapted from an essay by historian Michelle Perrot, Through the Mill was directed by Gérard Mordillat. A political activist, Mordillat is also a poet, journalist, television personality and has published numerous novels. His many television credits, as both writer and director of TV movies, series and documentaries, include My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud (1995), starring the great Sami Frey, and the comedy La Grand Retournement (2013).

COLCOA Television, Women Make History

In association with France TV Distribution, TVFI