DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID
LE JOURNAL D'UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE | LUIS BUÑUEL, 1964
FRANCE/ITALY | FORMAT: 35MM | 101MIN MINUTES
When Parisian femme de chambre Céléstine (Jeanne Moreau) arrives at her new post at a provincial manor, she finds a cast of variously corrupt and perverse eccentrics lurking therein, including an elderly, foot-fetishist patriarch; a womanizing, small-game hunter (Michel Piccoli); a garbage-tossing neighbor; and a right-wing, anti-Semitic groundskeeper (Georges Géret). We're clearly in the world of Buñuel, though the director and co-screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (who also cameos as a priest) take significantly greater liberties with Octave Mirbeau's satiric 1900 novel than the 1946 Hollywood version directed by Jean Renoir. A fallback project for Buñuel after the Spanish government nixed his first attempt at Tristana, the material proved fertile for his wild imagination, and teamed him for the first time with producer Serge Silberman and Carrière, collaborators he would continue to work with for the rest of his career.
Founded in 1997 by legendary exhibitor and programmer Bruce Goldstein (joined one year later by partner Adrienne Halpern), Rialto Pictures quickly established itself as a new gold standard in the distribution of classic world cinema—from reissues of landmark works like The Third Man and Grand Illusion to the rediscovery of little-known masterpieces never before released in the U.S., including Alberto Lattuada’s Mafioso, Claude Sautet’s Classe Tous Risques and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows. On the occasion of Rialto’s 15th anniversary, we are pleased to present an exclusive weekday matinee series of 15 treasures from their remarkable library. Series programmed by Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern.
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