Diary of a Chambermaid

The second adaptation--after Jean Renoir's disappointing 1946 effort--of Octave Mirbeau's 1900 novel about a chambermaid's (Jeanne Moreau) socio-political-sexual dealings with a French countryside-based bourgeois family circa the 1930s, the parts of Luis Buñuel's 1964 version are decidedly greater than the whole. Whether it's the shocking sight of a butterfly being literally blasted to bits by a shotgun (an approach that Buñuel was occasionally guilty of himself in regards to his favorite subject, the bourgeoisie), or the satirical portrait of the doddering family patriarch with a footwear fetish who calls upon Celestine (Moreau) for evening entertainment, or the amusing squabbling between the sexually frustrated husband (Michel Piccoli)--rebuffed by both Celestine and his wife (for whom sex is "painful," she confides to the local priest)--and a retired military next door neighbor who enjoys tossing his garbage over the fence, the film is not without its disturbing, bizarre, and humorous moments. Ultimately, however, Moreau's near deadpan performance makes her character an absolute cipher; we no more understand her motivations (sexual or emotional) than we can easily assimilate the jarring murder thrust into the center of the film, with the infamous shot of a pair of snails crawling across the legs of a dead young girl. Still, this very handsomely presented widescreen DVD transfer is recommended for larger collections. (R. Pitman)