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The Diary of a Chambermaid (1945)

Director: Jean Renoir

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From Time Out Film Guide

In its own strange way, even more genuinely surreal than Buñuel's later version of Mirbeau's novel about a keyhole-peeking chambermaid whose arrival in the household of a decadent and eccentric aristocratic family wreaks havoc. What's so bizarre about Renoir's adaptation (scripted and produced by Meredith, then husband of Goddard) is the sheer artificiality of both setting and performances, emphasising the power struggles that develop as a theatre of deceit and delusion. Less bitterly savage than Buñuel, but equally sharp in its satire, it stands on an otherwise uncharted point between La Règle du Jeu and, say, The Golden Coach.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Jean Renoir

Producer: Benedict Bogeaus, Burgess Meredith

Cast: Paulette Goddard, Hurd Hatfield, Francis Lederer, Burgess Meredith, Judith Anderson, Reginald Owen, Florence Bates, Irene Ryan full cast

Duration: 86 mins


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