Details
Movie Description
Luis Bunuel became the second filmmaker, after Jean Renoir, to adapt Octave Mirbeau's novel about a social-climbing chambermaid, and the upper-class home in which she works. However, Bunuel has updated the book by a quarter-century and veers from its words in order to stay true to its spirit. The story follows Celestine, who arrives at the Rabour-Monteil residence, where she encounters the family patriarch, a foot fetishist who cannot resist trying to seduce every maid; his resistant wife (who finds his "constant" demands for sex--twice a week--overwhelming); and, most important, Joseph, a fascistic and murderous man-servant who believes in maintaining France for the French... and who wants Celestine for his bride. A powerful and politically prescient film, that speaks to the present day as much as of the time in which it was made.
Synopsis
Luis Bunuel became the second filmmaker, after Jean Renoir, to adapt Octave Mirbeau's novel about a social-climbing chambermaid, and the upper-class home in which she works. However, Bunuel has updated the book by a quarter-century and veers from its words in order to stay true to its spirit...
The story follows Celestine, who arrives at the Rabour-Monteil residence, where she encounters the family patriarch, a foot fetishist who cannot resist trying to seduce every maid; his resistant wife (who finds his "constant" demands for sex -- twice a week -- overwhelming); and, most important, Joseph, a fascistic and murderous man-servant who believes in maintaining France for the French... and who wants Celestine for his bride.
A powerful and politically prescient film, that speaks to the present day as much as of the time in which it was made.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Single Side - Dual Layer - RSDL
Audio:
Mono - French
Additional Release Material:
Production Interview - 1. Jean-Claude Carriere
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical
Text/Photo Galleries:
Additional Text - 1. Interview with Bunuel
Industry Reviews
"...This is the movie that either completed the director's middle period or began the rich final one..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (06/08/2001)
"...As acutely observed as any British upstairs-downstairs comedy of manners, the film uses irony and understatement to devastating effect..."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (07/01/2001)
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