Claude Chabrol‘s ‘La cérémonie‘, adapted from a novel by Ruth Rendell, ends about where Stanley Kubrick’s and Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’ begins. The ceremony in the title is a shocking act of violence, and I won’t say more to avoid the sin of spoiling. Made in 1995, ‘La cérémonie‘ is, in my opinion, Chabrol‘s last great film and one of the best of the several dozen films of his long directing career. The film has sometimes been described as ‘Marxist’, and I suspect that this is because the characters are divided into two categories that clearly belong to different social classes. It is in fact one of Chabrol‘s favorite themes, who in many of his films criticizes the French bourgeoisie, sometimes directly, sometimes subtly. The murders are almost always present, although in ‘La cérémonie‘ the story is more subtle and complex. The two worlds – of the bourgeoisie and those who serve it – are present here too. But there is no hope of reconciliation between them.
The scene that opens the film is the job interview of a homemaid named Sophie for a position in the Lelievre family home, taken by the lady and the mistress of the house. In the second scene, the family – composed of the home lady who owns a gallery, he husband who is a classical music lover, his student daughter and her teenage son, both from previous marriages – discuss what to call the maid’s job and end up agreeing on the term ‘bonne à tout faire’. Sophie starts working in the comfortable but somewhat isolated manor in Brittany of the Lelievre family. Everything seems OK, the girl is hardworking, she cooks well, but some disturbing signs appear in addition to the slightly strident music, foreshadowing bad things, à la Hitchcock. Why does Sophie so often answer ‘Je sais pas’ (‘I don’t know’) to very banal questions, although she does not look dum at all? Does she have vision problems that prevent her from reading the homeowners’ instructions and shopping lists, or does she hide something else? Sophie’s only friend is Jeanne, a post office clerk in the nearby town – also a single woman, with her own quirks and a shady past. Sophie and Jeanne become friends, which does not please Mr. Lelievre, who suspects the postwoman of reading his correspondence. Between the well-off family and the two single women, relationships are established that are well-defined by social rules and French politeness, but tension grows. Each of the two groups lives in its own bubble. In one, Mozart’s operas are listened to, in the other, vulgar television programs are watched. The proximity of the two bubbles brings with it the danger of explosion.
As in the films of his master Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol gradually builds tension, preparing the ending. It will include a surprise, not necessarily because of what happens but because of how it happens. When I look back, after the finale, at the events that preceded it, I seem to identify many warning signs, but they are so subtle that they are ignored by both the audience and the heroes of the film. The cast is stellar, with three of the best French actresses of the era and of the last half century appearing together on screen. Isabelle Huppert as Jeanne created a complex ‘bad girl’ role, being the key character of the entire plot. Sandrine Bonnaire is also superb – seemingly icy, struggling with her disability and her past. Her character here could be the anonymous girl in Agnès Varda’s excellent ‘Sans toi ni loi’ (‘Vagabond’), the film that launched her, if she had lived and a few years had passed. Jacqueline Bisset has the least defined role of the three actresses, she’s OK, but not more. Also appearing in the cast are Virginie Ledoyen (very young at the time) and Jean-Pierre Cassel, an actor who has never disappointed me. I don’t think Chabrol was only interested in the differences in social classes, but also in the psychological profile of the two women. Each of them carries a burden from the past. Is this a meeting of two women wrongly suspected of horrible deeds, or perhaps it is the meeting of two perverse criminals, so that what happens later was a predictable tragedy? Chabrol intelligently leaves it up to us, the viewers, to decide. ‘La cérémonie‘ is one of those films that stays with the viewer even after the screening is over. None of the characters are particularly likeable and we don’t feel like putting ourselves in their shoes at all, but we still continue to think about them long after the film has ended.