Journal d'une femme de chambre (2015)
Directed by Benoît Jacquot

Film Review

Octave Mirbeau's 1900 novel Le Journal d'une femme de chambre was intended as a damning critique of the era in which it was written, its principal targets being the anti-Semitism, class prejudice and exploitation of women that were endemic in French society at the turn of the century.  A hundred years on, these social failings are still very much in evidence and Mirbeau's iconoclastic novel remains depressingly pertinent, something that Benoît Jacquot makes clear in his faithful adaptation of this essential work of French literature.  Even though the film is set in the past, in the dying days of la Belle Époque, it could easily pass as an accurate portrait of present-day France.

Jacquot's is not the first screen adaptation of Mirbeau's novel, but it is the one that is most faithful to the original text (its departures being only a few minor plot alterations).  The first film version (now all but forgotten) was made by a Russian director, M. Martov, Dnevnik gornitchnoi (1916).  This was followed by Jean Renoir's The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), an American film starring Paulette Goddard in the lead role of Célestine.  Luis Buñuel's Le Journal d'une femme de chambre (1964) is probably the best-known version, prized mainly for Jeanne Moreau's kinky reinterpretation of the main character.  Neither Renoir's film nor Bunuel's does justice to Mirbeau's novel - the former only just comes to grips with the class warfare theme, whereas the latter is content with being just another anti-bourgeois satire with fetishistic and fascistic trimmings.

Continuing a trend which runs pretty well through all of the director's work, Jacquot's latest film is centred around one feisty young woman, this time the Mirbeau heroine Célestine - a made-to-measure role for the supremely talented Léa Seydoux.  Célestine is a character of inordinate charm and complexity; morally ambiguous she may be, but she demands our sympathy as a victim in an age where women of her class are treated no better than slaves.  She may appear fragile in some scenes, but she has spirit and an obvious desire not to be dominated by others - in short, a proto-feminist.  Seydoux gives the multi-faceted character a humanity that sets her apart from all of the other players in the drama, making her the moral centre of each of the episodes that make up the film.  In Vincent London's Joseph we have another interesting but far less sympathetic character, a boorish anti-Semite who, today, would doubtless be a fully paid up member of the Front National.  At the time of the Dreyfus Affair, anti-Semitic sentiment was rife in France, and Joseph represents that stratum of French society that was happy to attribute all of his country's ills to the Jews - must as today's rightwing supporters find an easy scapegoat in the immigrants that are supposedly flooding the country.

Sumptuously photographed by award winning cinematographer Romain Winding, Le Journal d'une femme de chambre is arguably Benoît Jacquot's most attractively composed film to date, but its power lies not  in its lush visuals but in the compelling performances from the leads, who are admirably supported by actors who are predominantly better known for their stage work, notably Clotilde Mollet and Hervé Pierre, who are excellent choices for the parts of Madame and Monsieur Lanlaire.  Jacquot's mise-en-scène perhaps isn't as inspired or showy as in earlier films, but it has enough muscle to carry the substantial narrative and allow it to make its moral points without distracting from or over-embellishing the performances.  More substantial than Renoir's light offering, crueller even that Buñuel's version, this latest take on Mirbeau's novel is as scathing a commentary on modern times as you could wish for.

Film Synopsis

Towards the end of the 19th century, a headstrong young woman named Célestine arrives in a small Normandy town to take up the post of a maid to the wealthy Lanlaire family.  As she resists the unwelcome advances from her libidinous master, Célestine has her work cut out trying not to get on the wrong side of his wife, a strict disciplinarian who runs her household with an iron hand and a sharp tongue.  Monsieur Lanlaire is not the only one to fall victim to Célestine's divine beauty; his rough-mannered gardener Joseph proves to be just as susceptible, only he is much more determined to have his way.  A staunch anti-Semite determined to improve his lot in life, Joseph makes Célestine an offer she can hardly refuse...