La Ceremonie (Chabrol, 1995): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.10pm
Time Out review:
When Catherine (Jacqueline Bisset) takes on Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) as housekeeper, her
family's impressed by Sophie's aura of quiet responsibility, even though
they're not convinced she knows how to serve dinner correctly. Snobbish
but liberal, they nevertheless treat her generously. Only when she
starts to consort with postmistress Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), a gossip whom
husband Georges (Jean-Pierre Cassel) suspects of opening the family mail, do they
find real cause for complaint. But by then the women have a secret bond
which excludes them from the safe cosseted world of Sophie's employers.
Claude Chabrol's adaptation of Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone
benefits from the director's immaculate sense of social and
psychological detail. The film's strong points are not mystery, suspense
or even surprise, but Chabrol's flair for characterisation, careful
pacing and solid evocation of bourgeois complacency and anti-bourgeois
hatred creates a palpable sense of unease that fully justifies the
shockingly violent finale. Ledoyen, the daughter of the household, is a
discovery; Bisset returns to form; and Huppert, unusually vivacious, is
terrific.
Geoff Andrew
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment