Diary of a Chambermaid

After Jean Renoir’s 1946 light adaptation of Octave Mirabeau’s novel of the same name, Buñuel directs a more political and dramatic feature, which marked the beginning of his French period during the summit of his career.

Jeanne Moreau portrays Célestine, a social climbing chambermaid in the dangerously eccentric Rabour-Monteil home. This includes the perverse family patriarch Monteil (another great turn from Michel Piccoli), his frosty wife Mme. Monteil (Françoise Lugagne) and the violent, xenophobic gardener Joseph (Georges Géret). Célestine has to make a decision: either to submit to this morally corrupt household and thus increase her own social status or take a stand and risk repercussion.

Buñuel’s acerbic adaptation can be interpreted as a statement on bourgeois Europe’s relations with fascism during the thirties, while offering an unnerving look at a woman’s position and choices within a rigid society.