Claude Chabrol is one of the last New Wave directors I'm writing a "Great Directors" post for, because he tends to make unnerving crime and suspense films that leave me a little cold. His protagonists, especially in his early films, are usually secret psychopaths who nurse grudges and harbor dark feelings toward those around them. An awful lot of the stories end in murder, and the murders in Chabrol films are genuinely upsetting in the way that they're staged and the context in which they happen. I've also held off, because Claude Chabrol was one of those prolific directors who turned out excellent work well into his seventies, and I'm always worried about overlooking important titles.
The clear standout for me, however, is "La Cérémonie," a psychological drama about a maid who murders the family that she works for with the help of a local friend. Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert play the killers, and a good deal of the film is about their developing friendship. They are a terrible influence on each other, but find a common kinship in their outsider status and resentment toward those around them. Bonnaire plays the maid, Sophie, who is deeply insecure about her shortcomings, but projects a facade of competency and confidence to hide them. However, she's not very good at maintaining this facade, and inevitably the mask keeps slipping. Her employers are rich, cultured, and make assumptions about Sophie that she can't live up to, frustrating her. Huppert, playing the friend, Jeanne, puts the blame on the employers for being stuck up. Jeanne seems to be angry with everyone who has money.
One of the major themes of New Wave film was rebelling against the bourgeoisie, which I often found difficult because politics were boring and I couldn't spell "bourgeoisie." "La Cérémonie," which Chabrol joked was the "last Marxist film" is about the class divide in a way that is completely accessible and compelling. Sophie's anxieties about how she's seen by others is at the root of everything that happens in the film. The employers seem to be nice people and well-meaning, but they constantly challenge her self-esteem by existing in a world that Sophie can't access. The major transgression they commit against her is discovering a secret that she's been hiding - something that isn't shameful in their eyes, but widens the gulf between them in a way that Sophie can't bear.
Roger Ebert surmised that the title of the film, "La Cérémonie," refers to the events leading up to an execution by guillotine. The film works wonderfully as a thriller, with Chabrol building tense scenes out of the most mundane domestic interactions. Sophie is initially the source of many mysteries, acting strangely in the new household and contradicting instructions for unknown reasons. Once Jeanne enters the picture, with all her jealousies and resentments, we know it's only a matter of time before she's going to give Sophie all the reasons she needs to turn against her employers. It's fascinating to watch as the family's normal daily activities start getting on Sophie's nerves, and even fairly innocuous behavior, like watching television and using the dishwasher, becomes imbued with all kinds of meaning.
Bonnaire and Huppert's performances are fabulous, as they usually are. Bonnaire in particular is so skilled at telling the audience exactly what they need to know when they need to know it, and absolutely nothing more. Plenty of mysteries are left at the end of "La Cérémonie," and you could dig much deeper into them than I have. However, I'm wary of revisiting "La Cérémonie" too often. What Chabrol is particularly good at is making his murderers relatable in ways that remind the viewer that they're human beings - flawed and faulty, but often all too familiar. Sophie and Jeanne are killers, but only in the last few minutes of the film. For most of the movie, they're completely ordinary people, who I found myself agreeing with more often than not.
What I've Seen - Claude Chabrol
Le Beau Serge (1958)
Les Cousins (1959)
Les Bonnes Femmes (1960)
The Third Lover (1962)
The Champagne Murders (1967)
The Unfaithful Wife (1969)
This Man Must Die (1969)
Le Boucher (1970)
Nada (1974)
Violette Nozière (1978)
Cop au Vin (1985)
L'enfer (1994)
La Cérémonie (1995)
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