Octave Mirbeau's 1900 novel centering on Célestine—a beautiful but bitter Parisian maid who takes advantage of her provincial bourgeois employers—has been filmed before, notably in 1946 by Jean Renoir with Paulette Goddard, and then with customary bile by Luis Buñuel in 1964 starring Jeanne Moreau (the latter updating the story to the 1930s). This new retelling by Benoît Jacquot sticks closer to the original novel, and has found in Léa Seydoux a Célestine who embodies the character's physical attractiveness while also conveying her seething resentment (often through muttered asides). The narrative is presented in a vague triptych, with the first section concentrating on Célestine's mistreatment at the hands of autocratic mistress Madame Lanlaire (Clotilde Mollet) while she also suffers the hapless amorous advances of Madame's lustful husband (Hervé Pierre). Célestine enjoys an interlude of relative happiness when she is lent to another household as a caretaker for a fragile young nobleman (Vincent Lacoste) who has a kindly grandmother, but it ends badly, and after returning to the Lanlaires she becomes involved in a scheme concocted by rabidly anti-Semitic gardener Joseph (Vincent Lindon) to rob their employers and share the spoils in Paris afterward. Lushly filmed and well acted, this is a solid presentation of Mirbeau's unhappy story. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
Diary of a Chambermaid
Cohen, 96 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $25.99 Volume 32, Issue 1
Diary of a Chambermaid
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