A newly hired maid for a rich countryside family befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.A newly hired maid for a rich countryside family befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.A newly hired maid for a rich countryside family befriends a post-office clerk who encourages her to rebel against her employers.
- Awards
- 9 wins & 11 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe author Ruth Rendell has said that Claude Chabrol's version of her novel "A Judgement in Stone" is one of the few film adaptations of her work that she is happy with.
- Quotes
Georges Lelievre: [referring, respectively, to Sophie the illiterate maid and Jeanne the nosy postal clerk] What a pair: one can't read at all, and the other reads our mail.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Close Up: Isabelle Huppert: Message personnel (2020)
- SoundtracksCello Symphony
Composed by Benjamin Britten
Featured review
Sandrine Bonnaire Is Perfect
I love Sandrine Bonnaire. Not love her in the "sell my possessions and move to Paris" love her, but love her in movies. In this movie especially. Every second she is on the screen, I was riveted to her. Her somewhat jerky and stiff physical mannerisms, her plain but beautiful face. And even though from the start we sense that her character is odd, creepy even, we can also feel her almost childlike panic and pain early on when we learn she can't read. It's enormously moving, and it creates a sympathetic bond with her that complicates how we view the events that follow. I just love her, and that probably clouded my overall estimation of the film. That's not to say the film is otherwise weak. It's not. The exploration into the class conflict between the rich and their help was excellent. And so was the portrayal of the sociopathic personality, shifting from sweet smiles to cold-bloodedness in a process devoid of emotion. Chilling, especially so when the sociopath is a waifish beauty. It's a very good movie made great by Sandrine Bonnaire's performance.
helpful•3412
- epeck15
- Feb 22, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- La Ceremonie
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $873,196
- Gross worldwide
- $873,196
- Runtime1 hour 51 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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