Cheap Diary of a Chambermaid - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Jeanne Moreau, Georges Géret, Michel Piccoli) (Luis Buñuel) Price

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Customer Reviews of Diary of a Chambermaid - Criterion Collection

Luis Buñuel's unique persona shines through in Diary of a Chambermaid as it presents politics on a grass root level. Yet, it is a very different film from his other films as it deals with a different theme and is present in a different angle than his other creations. Buñuel displays several upper-class rules and expectations, but also the hypocrisy behind the aristocratic values. For example, Buñuel shows a very realistic view of the socioeconomic oppression of women in an environment that is built on traditions and social rules. These customs are under scrutiny as Celestine silently transgresses from the norms of her society. In the end, Buñuel offers his view of an aristocratic life style and its influence on the people in it, which leaves the audience with a terrific cinematic experience that offers both insights and thoughts.

accessible Bunuel
Octave Mirbeau's book was first filmed by Jean Renoir, but Luis Bunuel's superior version makes the story his own as he shifts certain aspects of the novel to fit his own interests and brings in a wonderful cast, including the luminous Jeanne Moreau. Set in 1930s France, at a time when fascism was making inroads, Moreau's Celestine has come from Paris to serve a bourgeois family on their country estate. Seen through her eyes, we find decadance, eccentricity and malevolence at every turn as she copes with a fetishist, a lecher and even a murderer. Ultimately, we find that Celestine herself is also an opportunist. Or is she just a survivor?

This is one of Bunuel's most accessible films. If you're interested in this director, or European film in general, this would be a great introduction. This is the first screenplay with longtime collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, and an 18-minute interview with Carriere should add to your enjoyment of this excellent b&w dvd print. The dvd also includes a trailer, which is really a mini-interview with Moreau.

French with optional English subtitles.

A dark comedy of brilliance
This is my favorite Buñel film. The story is stunningly presented, an absolute work of art, unbelievably subtle but always concrete. It is like a great symphony: every note is perfect.

Surprisingly (considering the title) Le journal d'une femme de chambre is not about sex, nor is it a journal for that matter. It is about politics, sexual politics of course, but also domestic politics, manor politics, and nation-state politics. The time is the thirties as fascism moves toward its mesmerizing stranglehold on a decadent Europe. The place is France (Normandy, I imagine) where the republicans hold power. In the streets are those who would be brown suits and among them is Joseph (Georges Geret), groundskeeper for a petite bourgeois family of degenerate eccentrics. He is an incipient Nazi, a xenophobic anti-Semitic man who worships brute force, an ignorant man that every French movie-goer knows will be a Nazi-collaborator once France is under the occupation.

The story is seen from the point of view of Celestine, a chambermaid of some sophistication (and an abiding, but understandable duplicity), a Parisian who has come to work for the family in the country. She is played by the incomparable Jeanne Moreau of the plastic face, a woman of many guises, many moods and an ability to depict with a glance any emotion. She is a great star of the French stage and screen who plays the part effortlessly, with finesse and a fine subtlety. The screenplay by Buñel and the brilliant Jean-Claude Carriere (who penned so many outstanding films, Bell de Jour (1967), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), Valmont (1989), The Ogre (1996), etc.) is an adaptation of the novel by Octave Mirbeau. There is a Hollywood film of the same name starring Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith and Judith Anderson, directed by Jean Renoir that I haven't seen, released in 1946. I understand the treatment was more comedic and conventional.

Surrealist Luis Buñel's film is perhaps best described as a comédie noire, a genre antecedent to the familiar (and somewhat similar) film noir. In the latter the comedy is usually incidental and there is no attempt at any great philosophic or symbolic significance. Here Buñel not only makes a statement about the nature of the relationship between bourgeois Europe in the thirties and fascism, but even delves into the primeval nature of women and gives us a sharp look at a woman's place in bourgeois society. Celestine is duplicitous because she has to be to survive. She uses men the way the society uses her.

Be sure and pay close attention to the final scene inside and outside the café and consider the implications of what is being shown. What is being suggested? Will Joseph finally get the punishment he so richly deserves? Or did Celestine make the choice she made out of fear? Is the union between Joseph and Celestine symbolic of that between the fascists and Europe?

For those interested in this last theme I highly recommend Vittoria De Sica's brilliant The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971).