The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946)
Dir: Jean Renoir
USA, 1946, English, 86mins, DCP
Cast: Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, Hurd Hatfield, Francis Lederer
Jean Renoir’s loose but spirited adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s decadent novel features the electrifying Paulette Goddard as Celestine, the eponymous heroine, whose efforts to claw her way into French high society destroys the bourgeois household where she is employed. Burgess Meredith writes, produces and stars as the eccentric Captain Mauger, one of many men to fall under Celestine’s hypnotic spell, but it is the central rivalry between the sickly aristocrat and the sinister valet that truly gives the film its dramatic framework. Descending from comic romance to class-conscious cynicism, Renoir’s Hollywood production is easily recognisable for its dreamlike quality, imbued with decadent aristocracy, possessive passion and an optimistic ending of self-liberation, an interesting contrast with Buñuel’s version of a surrealistic dark fable.
Preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and The Film Foundation.
5/3 (Sun): Film talk with Joyce Yang
Screening:
In-theatre Screening
Cinema Heritage: From The Film Foundation
Buy Ticket 2023-01-29 (Sun)
19:15Buy Ticket 2023-03-05 (Sun)
17:00
PREMIERE Elements (Venue)
Hong Kong Arts Centre Louis Koo Cinema (Venue)
HK Science Museum Lecture Hall
Hong Kong Film Archive
K11 Art House
The Metroplex
Festival Grand Cinema
the sky
MCL Telford Cinema
Tai Kwun
MOViE MOViE
CINE FAN ONLINE
EMP Cinemas iSQUARE (Venue)
M+ Cinema (Venue)
EMP Cinemas Times Square (Venue)
The Grand Cinema
Broadway Hollywood
Cine Moko
Chinese Subtitles
Category III
Post-screening discussion with the director
Director and/or actor(s) will meet the audience
Post-screening talk
Full House
Introduction