Thoughts on La Cérémonie

 On Criterion last month, I watched La Cérémonie, a 1995 French film directed by Claude Chabrol that is a mix of a dark comedy and a crime film, and I really adored it. It stars Sandrine Bonnaire as this quiet, dry maid hired to work for a rich family out in their remote mansion, led by the matriarch Jacqueline Bisset, who is nice but kind of flighty, and she has a very “whatever” attitude to things, until she meets Isabelle Huppert, a local postal clerk who is seen as the town kook, and brings this eccentric weird energy to the movie that is really funny and bright. Huppert is more of a rebellious influence on Bonnaire, who just starts to ditch her work, take off with Huppert in goofing around and bonding over dark pasts, and take advantage of watching TV in her room (like seeing goofy talk shows and puppet-filled music videos), and the family both doesn’t get it, but also seem unaware in their own world. Basically, if you’ve seen Parasite, you get what kind of family this is, the comments the film is making on class and the bourgeoisie, and the similar endings.

I liked how funny and weird Huppert was in this, she seemed to be having a lot of fun. I liked how Bonnaire just came off as so still and observing her surroundings (including being nosy and listening in on the family’s private conversations to learn secrets), but ultimately coming off as cold inside when she just had it with them. And I was surprised to see a young Virginie Ledoyen as the teen daughter.

This was a lot of fun to watch, I’m happy I checked it out.