La Cérémonie (1995)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

La Cérémonie (1995) – C. Chabrol

At their best, Claude Chabrol’s movies can be very Hitchcockian – after all, the man wrote a classic book about Hitch (with Eric Rohmer). He knows how to set up situations in which even simple actions seem to create suspense – it just takes a few unusual (and unexplained) decisions by a central character to get one’s brain turning. Here, the set-up is straightforward: a bourgeois family in rural Brittany, the Lelievres (Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Cassel with respective stepchildren, Virginie Ledoyen and Valentin Merlet), hire a maid, Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire). We are immediately encouraged to think about the social class divide between these characters but there are also signs that the family is respectful and concerned about Sophie’s well-being (they discuss whether helping her to get a driver’s licence is patronising or not). Yet, soon Sophie starts to act in ways that suggest that she is not as subservient and docile as she seems. She falls under the influence of the chaotic local post office clerk, Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), who clearly has a chip on her shoulder about the Lelievres. We also learn that Jeanne was previously charged with the death of her own 3-year-old daughter, which naturally adds some suspense. Other secrets emerge as the film progresses. However, it is the shocking ending that really ties the picture together, moving it beyond a simple (although engaging) thriller and into something more complex, a film that tries to understand how class differences may feel from multiple perspectives, each with their own undeniable logic.