The Diary of a Chambermaid [Le Journal d’une Femme de Chambre] ***** (1964, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Géret, Daniel Ivernel) – Classic Movie Review 5835

Director Luis Buñuel’s 1964 reworking of Jean Renoir’s 1946 Hollywood film of The Diary of a Chambermaid hones the social analysis, blackens the tone, sharpens the script and updates the action to the Thirties for his version of Octave Mirbeau’s bourgeois-knocking novel about a grasping chambermaid.

The film takes much of its power to transfix from Jeanne Moreau’s commandingly icy performance as the maid Célestine who hates the rich middle-class (Michel Piccoli as her provincial master M Monteil, Daniel Ivernel as the captain neighbour M Mauger). Georges Géret plays the murderous valet (and fascist) Joseph, whom Célestine fancies.

It is of course ideal material for Buñuel to scourge the bourgeoisie and take swipes at the rise of French fascism – and he turns it into one of his important works. It is a Buñuel masterpiece.

Also in the cast are Jean Ozenne, Françoise Lugagne, Jean-Claude Carrière, Muni, Joëlle Bernard, Françoise Bertin, Aline Bertrand, Pierre Collet, Michel Dacquid, Gilberte Géniat, Dominique Sauvage and Claude Jaeger.

It is written by Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière (who also appears as Le Curé), and shot in black and white and widescreen by Roger Fellous.

It was remade by director Benoît Jacquot in 2015 as Journal d’une Femme de Chambre, with Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon and Clotilde Mollet.

RIP Jeanne Moreau, whom French President Macron called ‘a legend of cinema and theatre.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5835

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