Bafici
Program
Venues and Tickets
An adaptation of the homonymous novel by Octave Mirabeau. Set in a town in Normandy in the late 19th century. The young and beautiful Celestine writes down on her journal the details of her arrival to a big mansion to serve a bourgeois family.
After Jean Renoir in 1946 and Luis Buñuel in 1964, it’s down to Benoît Jacquot to give Octave Mirabeau’s novel a 21st century twist. Mirabeau wrote his novel in 1900 as an attack on Parisian society following the Dreyfus scandal in 1894, and Jacquot’s film has removed none of the intended social satire. But his is more of a personal journey based around the character of the chambermaid. Léa Seydoux’s Célestine is a sassy young woman who feels life has dealt her a dud hand. She is forced to serve both middle class women who mistrust her beauty and their philandering husbands who want to exercise an outdated Droit de Seigneur. Jacquot’s film is less overtly political than those of his predecessors, but it’s a fascinating portrayal of a class system and mindset that still resonate today. JP
D: Benoit Jacquot G: Helene Zimmer, Benoit Jacquot F: Romain Winding E: Julia Gregory DA: Katia Wiszkop S: Pierre Mertens M: Bruno Coulais P: Jean-Pierre Guerin PE: Kristina Larsen CP: Les Films du Lendeman, JPG Films I: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon
Elle Driver. Sémira Hedayati T +33 156 434 879 E semira@elledriver.eu W elledriver.fr
He was born in Paris in 1947. He directed twenty feature-length films, including four collaborations with actress Isabelle Huppert, as well as Villa Amalia (2009; Bafici ‘15) and Farewell, My Queen (2012).
