Film Review: La Ceremonie

"La Ceremonie" **** (out of ****)

Claude Chabrol reminds me a little bit of Robert Altman in the way the public seems to constantly rediscover him. Every now and then a new film would be released by him and it would bring him back into the spotlight. With the late Robert Altman we would see this happen repeatedly after such films as "The Player" and "Gosford Park". With Chabrol though it has been a tricky journey.

By most film critic's accounts Chabrol started the French New Wave with "Le Beau Serge" in 1958. In the 1970s he was at the height of his powers with films such as "Le Boucher", "Wedding in Blood" and "This Man Must Die". His films took a cynical look at the bourgeoisie. He exposed their dark, perverse secrets. While on the outside they lived a charmed life in their hearts murder was hidden.

But during the 1980s something happened. Critics and the public just seemed to lose interest in his work. He had hit a slump. Sure some good films went unnoticed, like "Cop au vin" but Chabrol just couldn't catch a break. By the end of the decade things started to look up for him when "The Story of Women" was released with Isabelle Huppert, his greatest collaborator since his wife, Stephane Audran. But his fame was short lived. It wouldn't happen again until 1997 and the American release of "La Ceremonie" where audiences and critics would start to cheer his name again. It seemed Chabrol was back!

There is something unusual about "La Ceremonie" and yet very fitting and comfortable. On one hand it seems to be typical Chabrol and on the other it raises questions most Chabrol films don't.

Like nearly all Claude Chabrol movies this one deals with an upper-class family, the Lelievre's. Jacqueline Bisset stars as Catherine who is married to Georges (Jean-Pierre Cassel). Together they have two children; Melinda (Virginie Ledoyen) and Gilles (Valentin Merlet). At the start of the film Catherine is interviewing Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) for a job as a maid. Sophie seems well prepared and gives all the right answers. She can clean and cook, doesn't mind hard work and appears soft-spoken. She won't cause much trouble. She is immediately hired.

Already it seems Chabrol is engaging in his class warfare. We have the wealth of the Lelievre's v.s. the poverty of Sophie. How will these two worlds collide? But "La Ceremonie" takes things a step further than Chabrol normally does. This film, more than any other I can think of, is pure Marxist. Normally a Chabrol film will deal only with the upper-class and not pit them against the working class. Watch "Merci pour le Chocolat", "The Flower of Evil", "Wedding in Blood" or "Les Biches". The film becomes nihilist at its climax.

Chabrol gives us two versions of the poor. In Sophie will see the obedient nature of the oppressed. Though Sophie has some secrets. She cannot read, write, count or drive. I wonder if Chabrol is trying to say when people are uneducated they are submissive? Sophie is a hard worker and gives the Lelievre family no reason to complain. But once Sophie begins to get wise, due to Jeanne (Huppert), the flip side of Sophie, she starts to change.

Jeanne is a postal worker, who has been accused of not only reading people's mail but of killing her own daughter. She doesn't like the Lelievres and they don't like her. She knows something sinister must be going on within the family. She befriends Sophie, perhaps in part to find some dirt and to stir up trouble. Jeanne makes Sophie go against the family by trying to convince her the family is manipulating her. They ask too much of her.

We see an example of this in a scene dealing with Melinda's birthday. Catherine wants Sophie to help out and prepare food for a party, but, it is on her day off, a Sunday. Sophie has already made plans to volunteer at a church with Jeanne and tells Catherine so. But Catherine ends up keeping Sophie longer than expected causing Sophie to sneak out of the house.

But Jeanne is not so innocent herself. If the Lelievre's are taking advantage of Sophie, so is Jeanne. Jeanne is a troublemaker. She wants Sophie to see the world as she does and go against everything and everyone.

It is interesting the way Chabrol shows the relationship between these two women. It is almost comical. They are presented as teenage sweethearts. Since the Lelievres do not like Jeanne she must sneak it to their home where she and Sophie sit in her room and watch TV. When it is found out Jeanne has been sneaking in Sophie is forbidden from bringing her back. It is like the family is trying to break them apart. But this leads to something more suggestive in nature. Is Chabrol trying to suggest they are lovers? When they watch TV they have their arms around one another. When I sit next to one of my guy friends in a theatre I don't put my arm around them. Is more going on than Chabrol is revealing?

The two leads are perfectly casted. Bonnaire, who also appeared in Chabrol's "The Color of Lies" and Patrice Leconte's "Intimate Strangers", carries herself as a wide-eyed innocent lamb, who actually may not be all that innocent. It is found out her father died under suspicious circumstances. And Huppert is a natural for the trash-talking, common street woman. Which at first may sound like an insult but is actually a compliment. It shows how versatile she is as an actress. And Bisset, as always, carries herself with absolute elegance.

And now for the ending. It is going to bother many. When I first saw this film, several years ago, I was just discovering Chabrol, I thought it was a good movie but not a great one. The ending bothered me. I didn't feel there was enough of a lead up to it. It happened so suddenly. I felt there needed to be something more to trigger it. Now, having watched the movie again it seems fitting. It does lead up to its climax. It is a heartless and cold ending. It may shock some viewers but everything has been leading up to it. There is simply no other way a story just as this could have ended.

The film, which was based on a novel by Ruth Rendell entitled "A Judgment in Stone" and adapted by Chabrol and Caroline Eliacheff, was nominated for 6 Cesar Awards (the French Oscar) and won one for Isabelle Huppert as "best actress". It also won the National Society of Film Critics award for "best foreign language" film and was nominated for the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

One other interesting thing to note is, there is a scene where Catherine and Gilles are watching TV, a movie is playing. We hear Catherine talk about it in a previous scene. She describes the movie as great. The movie they are watching is "Wedding in Blood" directed by Chabrol.

"La Ceremonie" is a modern classic. It is one of the great Chabrol films and should be seen by any serious film lover. Rarely does Chabrol get any better than this.