by Homevision
| Average Rating: |
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| Sales Rank: | 63715 (lower is better) |
| Price Used: | $18.87 |
| Shipping: | Free Shipping on most orders over $25* |
| Availability: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| Director: | Claude Chabrol |
| Release Date: | 2004-07-27 |
| Label: | Homevision |
| UPC: | 037429196526 |
| Binding: | DVD |
| Publication Date: | 2004-07-27 |
| Published By: | Homevision |
| ASIN: | B00026L7MW |
| Category: | DVD |
Actors and Actresses
Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions
Description
In La Cérémonie, Claude Chabrol, known as the "French Hitchcock," creates one of his most shocking and unforgettable thrillers. Catherine (Jacqueline Bisset - Day for Night, The Deep) hires the illiterate Sophie as her maid. But Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire - Femme Fatale) soon falls under the influence of the mysterious Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert -The Piano Player, Merci Pour Le Chocolat), and the stage is set for a tale of murder, violence and betrayal. One of the Chabrol's most acclaimed films, and the winner of numerous international awards, La Cérémonie is a masterpiece of suspense.
Amazon.com
In the 1960s and early '70s, Claude Chabrol was celebrated as the Gallic Hitchcock for his crisp, character-rich thrillers. La Cérémonie, his 1997 hit adapted from Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgement in Stone, is a return to form, an assured domestic drama set in the upper-class household of the kind but condescending Lelievres family. Sandrine Bonnaire, excellent in an enigmatic, uncommunicative role, stars as their new, neurotically silent maid Sophie. She performs her duties efficiently and emotionlessly, staring out from behind an implacable, mask-like face born of loneliness and defensiveness. Isabelle Huppert is the town's gleefully misanthropic postmistress Jeanne, a gossipy, energetically insolent misfit who hates the Lelievres. When she becomes Sophie's best friend, her pathological game of taunts and gossip goes into overdrive with her sudden access to their house, and an already simmering class conflict boils over in unleashed anger. Chabrol charts the cascade of mischief and misunderstandings to its shattering conclusion, with a sensitivity to character and an eagle-eyed remove that makes the explosive climax all the more chilling. It's a devastating thriller, one of Chabrol's best, and a powerful portrait in hate and psychosis pushed over the edge in misunderstanding, manipulation, and mistrust. Jacqueline Bisset is the fumbling but sincere Mme. Lelievres, Jean-Pierre Cassel her complacent husband, and Virginie Ledoyen (A Single Girl) their sensitive young daughter. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Class Struggle as Tragedy - Reviewed on 2008-08-23
Claude Chabrol's "La Ceremonie" is based on the infamous Pepin murders of 1933. In 1933,a pair of (possibly) incestuous maids killed the family they served. In "La Ceremonie",Sandrine Bonnaire is the passive maid while Isabelle Huppert is the gossipy,darkly charming postmistress Jeanne. The maid can neither read nor write; she falls easily under Huppert's sway. In the meantime, she is working for a family (with Jacqueline Bisset as the luminous matriarch) that tries to be friendly to her,but ends up patronizing and condescending. Huppert is resentful, feeding off of Bonnaire's quiet resentment.
"La Ceremonie" portrays the so-called "class struggle" as a tragedy. Neither side is on the side of the angels. There is mutually assured destruction. Huppert's hatred of the rich upper-class destroys not only the family, but her as well. Bisset's family is casually condescending- while they aren't avatars of goodness,their brutal deaths are undeserved.
A dark moment in the film is when Huppert and Bonnaire casually reveal to each other that they might've killed members of their own families. Instead of mutual grief, they giggle and playfully tickle each other. Their bond is not one of love, but hatred and violence.
The conclusion of "La Ceremonie" fits the title;it's ritualistic. As Don Giovanni plays, killers and victims alike meet their ends. It chills the bones and breaks the heart.
A French thriller with a wicked sense of humor. - Reviewed on 2007-10-09
2 customers found this review helpful.
Often credited with starting the nouvelle vague French film movement, Claude Chabrol (1930) also collaborated with French New Wave director Éric Rohmer to write a study of Alfred Hitchcock (1957). In fact, Chabrol has been called "the French Hitchcock" for directing such thrillers as Le Boucher. Adapted from Ruth Rendell's novel, A Judgement in Stone, Chabrol jokingly called La Cérémonie "the last Marxist film." Set in Brittany, the film tells the story of a strange housekeeper, Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire), who has been employed by rich art dealer, Catherine Lelievres (Jacqueline Bisset) and her husband Georges (Jean-Pierre Cassel). The Lelievres live in an elegant country house with their daughter Melinda (Virginie Ledoyen) and son Gilles (Valentin Merlet). Because Sophie is illiterate, she can't retrieve a file, read a shopping list, take a drivers license exam, or count money. She spends her free time watching TV. When the town's postal clerk, Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), befriends Sophie, the film shifts into a suspenseful tale of murder. Georges hates Jeanne (who has a reputation of killing her retarded child), and she resents the Lelievres mainly for the authority they represent. Huppert and Bonnaire carry the film with their loony roles, making La Cérémonie a thriller with a wicked sense of humor.
G. Merritt
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Book Subjects
- Adult Situations
- Biting
- Class Differences
- Color
- Crime Drama
- Cynical
- Deliberate
- Disturbing
- Drama
- Feature
- Foreign
- Foreign Film - French
- Foreign Film [Dub Or Subtitle]
- Foreign Video - French
- France
- French
- Germany
- International
- Living With Disability
- Movie
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