Le Journal d'une femme de chambre
Luis Buñuel
Célestine is the new chambermaid for a provincial bourgeois family. Each day she observes the family's foibles: sexual appetite and fetishism for the men, frigidity and obsession for the mistress of the house, racism and paedophilia for the labourer. Célestine is an unenthusiastic worker and pursues one single ambition: her own social improvement. All the chaos around her seems to leave her indifferent, until a tragic event happens...
With : Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Géret, Daniel Ivernel, Jean Ozenne, Françoise Lugagne, Gilberte Géniat, Dominique Sauvage, Jean-Claude Carrière, Bernard Musson
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière, d'après le roman homonyme d'Octave Mirbeau
Image : Roger Fellous
Sound : Antoine Petitjean, Robert Cambourakis
Editing : Louisette Hautecoeur
Decors : Georges Wakhevitch
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière, d'après le roman homonyme d'Octave Mirbeau
Image : Roger Fellous
Sound : Antoine Petitjean, Robert Cambourakis
Editing : Louisette Hautecoeur
Decors : Georges Wakhevitch
Production : Serge Silberman, Michel Safra, Ciné-Alliance, Speva Films, Filmsonor, Dear Film Produzione
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
In this film Luis Buñuel gives us a bitingly satirical adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's novel. He was not particularly faithful to the book and chose to set the story in the 1920s and focus on a single bourgeois family. The character of the chambermaid, both docile and rebellious, contrasts the narrow-minded crumbling world of the provincial petite-bourgeoisie. The film was the first time that Buñuel worked with scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. "This film was the first time I discovered French collaborators who would never leave me, Pierre Lary, my first assistant director, Suzanne Durremberger, excellent continuity girl, and scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière who plays the role of the parish priest." (Luis Buñuel).