Le journal d´une Femme de chambre
France-Italy 1963, 81 min.
Director: Luis Buñuel
Producers: Speva Films, Ciné-Alliance, Fimsonor (Paris) - Dear Film Produzione (Roma)
Screenwriters: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carriére - based on the novel by Octava Mirabeaua
Director of Photography: Roger Fellous
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Georges Peret, Michel Piccoli, Francoise Lugagne,
Jean Ozenne, Daniel Ivernel, Gilberte Geniat ad.
Awards: Best Actress Award (J. Moreau) at 14th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
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The serene and softly flowing prologue does not only introduce the protagonist
Celestine and another crucial character Joseph, but for the first time in the film it
also slightly and almost imperceptibly removes the still veil hiding the world of sin.
This happens when Celestine discreetly puts her foot on the footrest and is lacing her
shoe. When watching the film for the first time, one might not even notice this detail,
but if you already know the film, you discover the connection to the old man´s
fetishist obsession as well as to the most erotic scene of the film.
Celestine arrives at a small castle (or a big house) governed by immutable age-old
rules and mechanisms. Aristocracy is but a relic showing numerous symptoms of
degeneration. Old father Rabour "has his whims", his daughter is not allowed to make
love with her husband Monteil ("it hurts her") who is a sexually frustrated coward ? .
The family resides in the opulent house whereas the servants mostly gather in the
kitchen, which draws the line between the two worlds. While there is no personality, no
real hero amidst the "ruling" class, among the servants there is not just Celestine
but also her perfect opponent Joseph. He epitomizes the times - while serving
aristocracy, he dreams about his own business and is an ardent supporter of nationalist
and anti-Semitic politics.
The revolutionary turn for the new is stressed very strongly in the film and so to say
from both sides - not only as the decline of the old (i.e. aristocracy) but also as a
rapid development of the new (i.e. political riots). The film culminates symbolically
in a big demonstration that Joseph is watching already as the owner of his longed-for
bistro. The old house is forgotten as well as everything related to it, most importantly
Celestine and little Claire´s murder.
The day little Claire is murdered forms the dramatic climax of the whole film. In a
single day, the delicate conversation between the madam and the Father takes place, old
Rabour dies, Celestine leaves and little Claire is murdered. For the spectators, the
only suspect is Joseph, whom we see follow little Claire to the forest and then, after
a cut, we watch a brutal yet surrealistic (the two characteristics do not contradict
each other, especially in Buñuel´s case) shot of dead feet with snails crawling on
them. This image of the dead Claire seems to be a "return to the roots", a quotation
of ants crawling on the hand from The Andalusian Dog. Both shots are intended to evoke
death through life.
In relation with this visual "Buñuelism" there comes another Buñuelesque constant,
ideological this time. The first people suspected of the murder are itinerant catholic
monks who had passed by that day. Only then the debating group agrees on other
candidates... But the Church also appears in the Diary of a Chambermaid in a "kinder"
light - as a true God´s servant, the Father comes to rescue his sheep from its worries.
The topic of their conversation is (with the director´s undisguised sarcasm) perfectly
profane. The madam confesses her sexual dysfunction to the Father and asks him for help
and advice. So the Father recommends her "different kind of touches" that, however, can
be perfomed no more than once a week. Here Buñuel seems to join (with great pleasure)
the old and the new - the traditional institution of Christian confession and modern
Freudian psychoanalysis. The image of the Church in the Diary of a Chambermaid?
Potential murderers and amateur sexologists...
The erotic line is related to the character of Celestine who is well aware of this
absolute power of hers. It is precisely the passionate desire that destroys the
habitual distribution of esteem arising from social status. Through Celestine´s
character, passion crushes everything and everyone, breaks free and decides everything.
Celestine becomes the object of sexual desire to all main male characters. Dressed in
black and white she is Maria (that´s how old Rabour calls her) and above all a whore.
With Rabour she shares his helplessly fading fetishist desires satiated by sleeping
with worn-out shoes and caressing calves, as well as his taste for reading the genuine
decadent Joris-Karl Huysmans. Reading an author who was at his creative zenith during
the period of fin de siecle is perfectly symbolical - it signals the fall of
aristocracy to the trapdoor of history where it is being consumed by itself.
The second man longing for Celestine is Rabour´s son-in-law Monteil - unsatisfied
libido literally spouts out of every move that this ridiculous caricature of Casanova
makes when plodding through his vast house. The clear distribution of roles between
the master and the servant is completely reversed and Monteil´s awkwardness only
exposes the dying flame of the upper class which is unable to bind to itself new and
non-degenerated genetic material.
Joseph, on the other hand, seems to be a serious aspirant to Celestine´s love. For a
long time, their relationship follows the romantic pattern of hatred turning into
passionate love and it might also be illustrated by the Christian allusion in the form
of their names Joseph and Maria (that´s how Celestine is called by Rabour). However,
Buñuel believes neither in romance nor in Christianity - Celestine´s motives for
approaching Joseph are purely rational, she aims to prove him guilty of the murder. In
the name of this objective she doesn´t hesitate to sacrifice her body, loved by all,
giving it to the resisting (!) Joseph. But before this happens, we witness the most
erotic scene of the film when Celestine undoes her black stockings and lies down in the
bed. In this scene she identifies with an earlier Buñuel´s heroine, Viridiana, who
takes off her black stockings as well. And, just like Viridiana, at the end of the film
Celestine enters into a suspicious and unexpected marriage.
She terminates her erotic and opportunist quest in the marriage bed of a former soldier,
a lier who has wasted most of his time fighting nonsense disputes with Monteil. The
scene in which Celestine as the newlywed wife gives orders to her husband can be
understood as the climax of the degeneration of beauty or as total resignation.
Joseph´s release due to the lack of evidence also means resignation and degeneration,
this time that of truth. The film ends on an ironical note with a view of his
flourishing bistro.
"I have always been very sensitive about women´s walk and look. In the Diary of a
Chambermaid I experienced real pleasure during the scene with the shoes, when I told
Jeanne Moreau to walk and I was filming her. Her foot trembles slightly when she is
walking on heels. A thrilling suspense. And a charming actress. I contented myself with
watching her and I almost didn´t correct her. She made me know things about the
character that I had no idea about." L.B.
Plus:
Diary of a Chambermaid is a film version of the novel by Octave Mirebeau
published in 1900 and first translated to Czech in 1905 under the title Deník hezké
komorné (Diary of a Beautiful Chambermaid
Buñuel moved the action of the novel from the end of the 19th century to the late
1920s, the time of political riots of right-wing groups.
Besides the film stars Jeanne Moreau (Celestine) and Michel Piccoli (Monteil), the
film also features the co-screenwriter and Buñuel´s long-time collaborator Jean Claude
Carriere (the priest) and the actress Muni, from this film on the mascot of all
Buñuel´s films (the role of the servant Marianne).
The demonstrators´ cry "Viva Chiappe!" at the end of the film is nothing else than
Buñuel´s irony. It´s a reminder of the prefect of Paris who in 1930 issued the
interdiction to show The Golden Age.
[ translation: Sabina Poláková ]
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