La Cérémonie

Biester
Sophie, the new housemaid for the Lelièvre family, is reserved and unassuming. But she loses favour with her employers when she makes friends with the feisty postmistress, Jeanne, whom Monsieur Lelièvre doesn’t like. The two very different women are linked by dark secrets and when one of Sophie’s is uncovered, she is fired. At Jeanne’s urging, she stands up to her employer. Aggressive, with a strong sense of class consciousness, Jeanne continues to spur on the escalating dispute … In a black leather jacket and a plaid skirt cut way too short, Isabelle Huppert imbues her Breton street battler with a proletarian punk attitude. When she finally annihilates the bedchamber of her bourgeois adversaries, it seems driven by the same kind of overexuberant ardour that once led rock stars to destroy hotel rooms. For her fifth film (out of a total of seven) with Claude Chabrol at the helm, Huppert was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in Venice (along with Sandrine Bonnaire), as well as France’s César film prize.
by Claude Chabrol
with Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Virginie Ledoyen, Valentin Merlet, Julien Rochefort, Dominique Frot, Jean-François Perrier
France / Germany 1995 French 111’ Colour Rating R12

With

  • Isabelle Huppert
  • Sandrine Bonnaire
  • Jacqueline Bisset
  • Jean-Pierre Cassel
  • Virginie Ledoyen
  • Valentin Merlet
  • Julien Rochefort
  • Dominique Frot
  • Jean-François Perrier

Crew

Director Claude Chabrol
Written by Claude Chabrol, Caroline Eliacheff based on the novel “A Judgement in Stone” by Ruth Rendell
Cinematography Bernard Zitzermann
Editing Monique Fardoulis
Music Matthieu Chabrol
Sound Jean-Bernard Thomsson, Claude Villand
Production Design Daniel Mercier
Costumes Corinne Jorry
Make-Up Jocelyne Lemery, Cédric Chami, Thi Loan Nguyen
Producer Marin Karmitz

Prokino Filmproduktion GmbH

Olga Film

France 3 Cinéma

Additional information

DCP: mk2 Films, Paris