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Movies / On DVD / Diary of a Chambermaid
Diary of a Chambermaid

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Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)

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Reviews Counted:19

Fresh:16

Rotten:3

Average Rating:8/10

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Luis Bunuel became the second filmmaker, after Jean Renoir, to adapt Octave Mirbeau's novel about a social-climbing chambermaid, and the upper-class home in which she works. However, Bunuel has... Luis Bunuel became the second filmmaker, after Jean Renoir, to adapt Octave Mirbeau's novel about a social-climbing chambermaid, and the upper-class home in which she works. However, Bunuel has updated the book by a quarter-century and veers from its words in order to stay true to its spirit... The story follows Celestine, who arrives at the Rabour-Monteil residence, where she encounters the family patriarch, a foot fetishist who cannot resist trying to seduce every maid; his resistant wife (who finds his "constant" demands for sex -- twice a week -- overwhelming); and, most important, Joseph, a fascistic and murderous man-servant who believes in maintaining France for the French... and who wants Celestine for his bride. A powerful and politically prescient film, that speaks to the present day as much as of the time in which it was made. [More]

Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Geret, Jean-Claude Carriere

Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Geret, Jean-Claude Carriere

Director: Luis Buñuel

Director: Luis Buñuel
Screenwriter: Jean-Claude Carriere

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Release:

Jun 5, 2001

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Diary of a Chambermaid

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A wonderfully vulgar film from the masterful Spanish director Luis Bunuel, Diary of a Chambermaid is an adaptation in spirit of Octave Mirbeau's novel and Jean Renoir's 1946 film.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
08/31/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Remarkably subtle and perceptive straightforward narrative on the rise of French fascism.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/27/06
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Diary of a Chambermaid is a piercing examination of the bourgeoisie and its obsessions. Buñuel shows us the horrifying actions and results with varying amounts of drama and humor like only he could.

Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | comment Comment
03/07/06
Mark Pfeiffer
Mark Pfeiffer
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In the end, it's not the chambermaid's sellout that shocks us but the all-absorbing power of the bourgoisie (Bunuel's longtime enemy) against which it seems futile to revolt.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/31/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Utterly stunning.

comment Comment
10/27/05
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Sadly, the intervening decades seem to have weakened Mr. Bunuel's powers. His new adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's Diary of a Chambermaid suffers in comparison with the strange but memorable version Jean Renoir did with Paulette Goddard in 1946.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/09/05
Eugene Archer
Eugene Archer
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
09/03/04
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

No review available.

comment Comment
03/23/04
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

A riveting, if not minor, Bunuelian masterwork.

comment Comment
09/14/03
Aaron Hillis
Aaron Hillis
Premiere Magazine

The Diary of a Chambermaid was a crucial turning point in Luis Buñuel’s career because it would officially usher in the French period of the director’s later years.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
09/08/03
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Interesting version of the story as slightly surreal poltiical tract by Bunuel.

comment Comment
08/27/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

No review available.

comment Comment
08/22/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
07/26/02
David Poland
David Poland
Hot Button

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Movie Habit | comment Comment
09/26/01
Marty Mapes
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit

A fascinatingly bizarre minor work.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
06/25/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
05/13/01
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Seems less and less a product of the great Bunuel and more and more like an imitator.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
02/13/01
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The themes of obsessive desire, inhibitions imposed by society and ridicule of conventional bourgeois values dominate Buñuel's work, and Diary of a Chambermaid is no exception to that.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
02/01/01
Julia Levin
Julia Levin
Filmcritic.com
 
 
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