Le journal d'une femme de chambre (1964)

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Luis Buñuel (writer)
Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

9 March 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Celestine, the chambermaid has new job on the country. The Monteils, who she works for are a group of strange people...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Chambermaid | Rape | Fascist | Normandy France

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Jeanne Moreau	...	Céléstine
Georges Géret	...	Joseph
Daniel Ivernel	...	Captain Mauger
Françoise Lugagne	...	Madame Monteil
Muni	...	Marianne
Jean Ozenne	...	Monsieur Rabour
Michel Piccoli	...	Monsieur Monteil
Joëlle Bernard
Françoise Bertin
Aline Bertrand
Pierre Collet
Michel Dacquid
Madeleine Damien
Marc Eyraud	...	Le secrétaire du commissaire
Jean Franval
Gilberte Géniat	...	Rose
Gabriel Gobin
Bernard Musson	...	The sacristan
Jeanne Pérez
Marcel Rouzé
Dominique Sauvage	...	Claire
Andrée Tainsy
Geymond Vital
Jean-Claude Carrière	...	The Priest
Claude Jaeger	...	The judge
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marcel Le Floch
Dominique Zardi	...	Police Officer (uncredited)

Directed by
Luis Buñuel

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luis Buñuel		writer
Jean-Claude Carrière		writer
Octave Mirbeau		novel

Produced by
Michel Safra	....	producer
Serge Silberman	....	producer
Paulette Goddard	....	executive producer (uncredited)
Burgess Meredith	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Roger Fellous

Film Editing by
Luis Buñuel
Louisette Hautecoeur

Production Design by
Georges Wakhévitch

Costume Design by
Georges Wakhévitch

Makeup Department
Simone Knapp	....	hair stylist
Maguy Vernadet	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Henri Baum	....	production manager
Jacqueline Dudilleux	....	assistant production manager
Ulrich Picard	....	production manager (as U. Picard)
André Retbi	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Juan Luis Buñuel	....	assistant director
Pierre Lary	....	assistant director

Art Department
René Calviera	....	assistant art director
Charles Merangel	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Robert Cambourakis	....	sound assistant
Antoine Petitjean	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Agathe Beaumont	....	second assistant camera
Jean-Louis Castelli	....	still photographer
Adolphe Charlet	....	camera operator
René Schneider	....	first assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jacqueline Moreau	....	wardrober

Editorial Department
Arlette Lalande	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Robert Demollière	....	administrator
Suzanne Durrenberger	....	script supervisor (as Suzanne Duremberg)
Odette Laeupplée	....	production secretary
Maurice Otte	....	production accountant
Jean Van Praag	....	administrator

Production Companies

• Ciné-Alliance
• Dear Film Produzione
• Filmsonor
• Spéva Films

Distributors

• Media Home Entertainment (1987) (USA) (video)
• Rialto Pictures (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Castle Hill Productions (19??) (USA) (all media)
• International Classics (USA) (subtitled)
• Royal Films (Belgium)

Also Known As:

Diary of a Chambermaid (USA)
Il diario di una cameriera (Italy)
The Diary of a Chambermaid (UK)
El diario de una camarera (Mexico) (Spain) (Uruguay) [es]
Diario de una camarera (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Tagebuch einer Kammerzofe (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Deník komorné (Czechoslovakia: Czech title) [cs]
Denník komornej (Czechoslovakia: Slovak title) [sk]
Diário de uma Camareira (Brazil) [pt]
Diario de uma Criada de Quarto (Portugal) [pt]
Dziennik panny sluzacej (Poland) [pl]
Egy szobalány naplója (Hungary) [hu]
En kammarjungfrus dagbok (Sweden) [sv]
En kammerpiges dagbog (Denmark) [da]
En kammerpikes dagbok (Norway) [no]
Het dagboek van een kamermeisje (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Jurnalul unei cameriste (Romania) [ro]
Kamarineidon päiväkirja (Finland) [fi]
To imerologio mias kamarieras (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

101 min | France:97 min | Brazil:94 min | Argentina:97 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:12 (DVD rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2001) | UK:15 (video rating) (1993) | UK:AA (original rating) (1981) | West Germany:12 (w)

Filming Locations:

Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France

Company:

Ciné-Alliance

Trivia:

The demonstrating fascists shout "Vive Chiappe", a homage to the chief of the Parisian police who prohibited showing director Luis Buñuel's earlier film L'âge d'or (1930) after fascists destroyed the cinema where it was being shown.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chappaqua (1966)

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).