Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d'une femme de chambre). 1963. Directed by Luis Bunuel.

(12/24/00-12/31/00)

I guess I just don't "get" Bunuel because I found this film long and meandering and pointless. I saw it once before and it made no impression on me at all. I did not get interested in any of the characters and what happens to them.

Jeanne Moreau plays a woman from Paris who comes to work as a chambermaid at a chateau in the country. All the men are after her and some of them assume that because she is from Paris she is a bad woman.

The father of the woman who hires her is attracted to her and is very interested in having her wear boots when she serves him. The scenes in which he talks about this or shows interest in the maid made me uncomfortable. Yes, this is pushing one of my buttons--there is a taboo about acknowledging sexual feelings in the elderly.

There is a scene where, just before her father dies, the wife attempts to talk with the local priest about her sexual problems with her husband. This likewise made me uncomfortable.

There is a neighbor, known as the "captain" who keeps throwing garbage onto the husband's property. When the husband takes the matter to the police this "captain" hides behind his military rank and betrays the respect that has accrued to him. At the end he marries the maid.

There is the rape and murder of a little girl in the woods. Coming out of nowhere as it appears to it doesn't have much emotional impact. Celestine, the maid, is convinced that the servant Joseph is guilty and she remains when she had intended to leave in order to bring him to justice. She actually sleeps with him and offers to marry him in order to get evidence of his guilt.

Is Joseph actually guilty? He seems to be. He speaks with the girl as she goes off into the woods and then goes after her. The act is not shown and there is left just one small iota of doubt. I don't know if that was intended or not.

Celestine is unable to get Joseph to admit to the killing. So she takes matters into her own hands. She pries a small metal plate from one of his shoes and leaves it at the scene of the crime. Even if Joseph is guilty Celestine does not know this for a fact. So she is in a sense framinghim. It doesn't work and at the end of the film he has realized his dream of opening a cafe in a military or revolutionary area. And he may indeed have gotten away with the rape and murder of an innocent little girl.

There is one moving scene in which the husband--who has been trying to find some woman, any woman, to have sex with--tells a servant woman that he will come to her room later. As he leaves, she turns and there is a tear running down her face.

The film as a whole did not capture my interest. It didn't in 1994 and it didn't in 2000.