Diary of a Chambermaid (1964 film)

Plot

A stylish, attractive young woman, Celestine (Jeanne Moreau), arrives from Paris to become chambermaid for an odd family at their country chateau. The period is mid-1930s, and the populace is astir with extremist politics, right and left. The Monteils household consists of a childless couple, the frigid wifes elderly, genteel father, and several servants, including Joseph the groom (Georges Geret) whos a rightist, nationalist, anti-Semitic, violent man. The wife (Francoise Lugagne) runs a rigidly tidy house; she would like to please her virile husband physically, but cannot, due to pelvic "pain." M. Monteil (Michel Piccoli) amuses himself by hunting small game and pursuing all the females within range – the previous chambermaid seems to have left pregnant and had to be "bought off."

The wifes father amuses himself with his collection of racy postcards and novels, and a closet full of womens shoes and boots, that he likes his chambermaids to model. Their next-door neighbor (Daniel Ivernel) is a burly, retired Army officer, with a chubby maid/mistress (Gilberte Geniat), and a violent streak of his own – he likes to throw refuse and stones over the fence, to the great annoyance of M. Monteil. Celestine almost immediately finds her role in the house completely defined by the sexual proclivities of the other characters, and she proceeds to use her own considerable sexual assets to accomplish her goals.

The elderly father, M. Rabour (Jean Ozenne), is found dead in bed, dissheveled, clutching some boots that Celestine had worn earlier that evening; and Celestine decides to leave the job the next day. Previously, however, she had become motherly and protective of a sweet pre-pubescent girl named Claire (Dominique Sauvage) who visited the house; after the girls raped and mutilated body is found in a nearby wood, Celestine decides to stay on at the job, in order to get revenge on the murderer. She quickly finds reason to suspect the groom Joseph. She seduces and promises to marry him and join him to run a cafe in Cherbourg, so he will confess the crime to her, which he does not. She then contrives and plants evidence to implicate him in the girls murder. He is arrested, but eventually released for lack of solid evidence, although there is a suggestion that the real reason is his nativist political activism. Meanwhile Celestine agrees to marry the elderly ex-Army-officer neighbor, and after the marriage, we see him serving her breakfast in bed and obeying her commands. The final scene shows a crowd of nationalistic men marching past the Cherbourg cafe run by Joseph, who has another woman now and is shouting rightist slogans.