HomeCinemaDVDOn TVVideoFeaturesMovie
RushMaking
MoviesCompetitionsForum
    C4 Forums    Film    General Film    CHANNEL 4 MESSED UP
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
-star Rating Rate It!  Login/Join 
New Member
Posted
First it wss Film4 that advertised the 1926 version of the "Thief of Baghdad" with Douglas Fairbanks and then showed the 1940 version with Sabu, now Channel 4 announces 1946 version of "The Diary of a Chambermaid" with Paulette Goddard but, clicking on the link on the Channel 4 website it says:

"Journal D'Une Femme De Chambre (Diary Of A Chambermaid) Review
97 minutes, France/Italy (1964), 15
Jeanne Moreau is the audacious maid who unearths the decadence and perversion at the heart of 1920s high society in Buñuel's satirical upstairs/downstairs drama

Diary Of A Chambermaid Compared to his early work with Salvador Dali or the macabre comedy of 1962's The Exterminating Angel, the relatively straightforward Journal D'Une Femme De Chambre (Diary Of A Chambermaid) appears to be out of character for Buñuel. The film uproots Octave Mirbeau's novel 'Le Journal D'Une Femme De Chambre' from the late 19th century and sets it in the late 1920s as it follows the fortunes of Celestine (Moreau), a young Parisian maid starting a new job at a country estate.

Feature continues

Once out of the supervision of her demanding mistress Madame Monteil (Lugagne), Celestine settles into her routine at the house. Almost immediately, however, the men of the house set about her. Monsieur Monteil (Piccoli) takes every opportunity to accost her, whereas Madame's father Monsieur Rabour (Ozenne) would rather she helped him indulge his footwear fetish. Also in the household is fellow servant Joseph (Geret), an obnoxious gardener who takes every opportunity to air his fascist views.

As Celestine unearths the perversions beneath the family's respectable exterior, so she learns to manipulate them to meet her own needs. But while it's ostensibly an entertainment, Buñuel customarily aims his acerbic humour against bourgeois values, fascist views and Catholicism. By setting the story in the 1920s, he parallels the amorality of the supposedly Catholic and respectable Monteil family with the bigotry becoming prevailant in society with the rise of fascism.

In this ambivalent world, Celestine is certainly no saint, exploiting the sexual and political fantasies of everyone in the household as she does. But when tragedy strikes the house, it becomes clear that she is the only character not suffering delusions about her behaviour. As the viewer's point of entry into the house, she is reveals the appalling truth about the characters she meets and thus becomes the most sympathetic character in the film.

Verdict
A witty and powerful film, Diary of a Chambermaid shows Bunuel exercising his powers as both filmmaker and cultural commentator in one of his more accessible dramas, as well as featuring Jeanne Moreau in one of her finest roles."

Quoted from this message



On this occasion I wish they'd show the Jeanne Moreau version. I also wish that Channel 4 would make up it's mind about which version it is going to screen.
 
Posts: 5Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
 Previous Topic | Next Topic powered by eve community  
 

    C4 Forums    Film    General Film    CHANNEL 4 MESSED UP