Murderous Maids

Rating:
Summary: "So this is what a maid is..."
Review: "Murderous Maids" is the true story of the notorious Papin sisters who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in 1933. The film begins with sisters Emilia and Christine dragged off to a convent school where Emilia begins to take her vows as a nun. The Papin family is a troubled one. Emilia was raped by her father, and the rest of the film makes us wonder what happened to Christine (Sylvie Testud) to make her commit the horrible crime she was eventually tried for and found guilty.

Clemence (Isabelle Renauld), Christine's mother, isn't exactly a saint either. Christine expresses an interest in becoming a nun too, but that notion is squashed by her mother who stands to profit from her daughters' employment. One senses that being a nun--while not exactly a burning desire for Christine--is at least preferable to a life of servitude as a maid. Christine becomes a servant in the homes of the wealthy, and the only joy in her life is her younger, not very bright sister, Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier). Christine is extremely protective of Lea, and this protectiveness mutates into an incestuous lesbian relationship between the unhappy pair.

I can't say that I enjoyed this film very much--but at the same time I do recognize the fact that it's extremely well made and well acted. However, that said, the film is painful and depressing to watch. Christine's life of servitude is full of misery. She is constantly under the watchful gaze of a series of petty-minded employers who monitor every move she makes. One employer even goes to the extremes of wearing white gloves and wiping the furniture to see that it's perfectly clean. Christine and Lea eventually share a dismal bare attic room where they even have to resort to hiding the light bulb--another extravagance their demanding employer, Madame Lincelan (Dominque Labourier) considers wasteful.

Personally, I find the servant-master relationship distasteful, corrupting, and unnatural at best, but Christine's lot is beyond reason. She becomes silent--completely dehumanized--and yet she's held to the highest of standards and expected to intuit her employers' every petty whim. To them she is less than human--and that's what she becomes. And as Christine satisfies her employers' demands, they fail to heed the warning signs. Nothing, however excuses the brutal murders and violence that occur in the household. The film evokes pity and then dismay as one realizes that Christine feels trapped, and there's an inevitable, horrific event waiting to happen. Sylvie Testud delivers a chilling performance as the twitchy, deeply troubled Christine--a miserable girl who suppresses all her emotion until it tragically explodes--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: TRUE LIFE INCEST AND MURDER
Review: Based on Janet Flanner's 1933 Vanity Fair article, MURDEROUS MAIDS (Home Vision Entertainment) vividly creates a sympathetic but unapologetic account of the notorious Papin sisters life when they are sold into servitude by their self-centered mother. Incest, murder and the haves vs the have-nots are at he heart of the most famous French crime of the 20th century. Memorable, insightful, artistic and chilling.

Rating:
Summary: I'm so far Down it seems like Up to me
Review: If you are depressed, just lost your significant other, lost out on that promotion, just had your car reposessed...do not go see Jean-Pierre Denis' "Murderous Maids." It's a real downer. But a downer with just the right amount of the absurd and the ridiculous to make it viable as entertainment.
"Murderous Minds" tells the story of Lea and Christine, two sisters who are sold into servitude by their mother; into the house of a French Bourgeoisie housewife who literally checks the dusting with a white glove. Madam is very persnickity about the household cleaning and the food bills and for a time forms a bond with the eldest sister, Christine who shares Madam's adherence to the highest standards. That is until Madam finds Lea and Christine "en flagrante delicto." Then the title of this little film comes into play and the tone changes from "A Room with a View" to le grand guignol.
Christine is the lynchpin of this film and she is a great character fulminating with rage and passion that inevitably leads her down the path towards mental illness...or is she merely having a very bad week? Lea the younger sister is a giggly mass of jello more than happy to be molded into a lover by Christine. Both actresses play their roles to the hilt and beyond culminating in the prison scenes in which both come very close to literally chewing the scenery. But it is all such a hoot that we care little and gladly suspend our disbelief; even though we do it with our mouths agape. Anyone remember Ken Russell's "The Devils?"
I suppose one could nit pick the weak psychological and social motivations of the characters and the film: why exactly is Christine so upset? Why does the mother find it necessary to take her younger daughter's wages when she herself is employed?
One of the major set pieces of "Murderous Maids" is Christine in the Mayor's office hysterically demanding that Lea be emancipated from their mother that ends in Christine being thrown out for causing a scene. It is so filled with over-ripe passion and hate it singes your ears and makes your stomach ache. Now that is moviemaking!
"Murderous Maids" is the kind of movie that dares you to laugh it off or ignore it...but it is so fabulously over-the-top in a Douglas Sirk/Roman Polanski way that you won't be able to.

Rating:
Summary: I'm so far Down it seems like Up to me
Review: If you are depressed, just lost your significant other, lost out on that promotion, just had your car reposessed...do not go see Jean-Pierre Denis' "Murderous Maids." It's a real downer. But a downer with just the right amount of the absurd and the ridiculous to make it viable as entertainment.
"Murderous Minds" tells the story of Lea and Christine, two sisters who are sold into servitude by their mother; into the house of a French Bourgeoisie housewife who literally checks the dusting with a white glove. Madam is very persnickity about the household cleaning and the food bills and for a time forms a bond with the eldest sister, Christine who shares Madam's adherence to the highest standards. That is until Madam finds Lea and Christine "en flagrante delicto." Then the title of this little film comes into play and the tone changes from "A Room with a View" to le grand guignol.
Christine is the lynchpin of this film and she is a great character fulminating with rage and passion that inevitably leads her down the path towards mental illness...or is she merely having a very bad week? Lea the younger sister is a giggly mass of jello more than happy to be molded into a lover by Christine. Both actresses play their roles to the hilt and beyond culminating in the prison scenes in which both come very close to literally chewing the scenery. But it is all such a hoot that we care little and gladly suspend our disbelief; even though we do it with our mouths agape. Anyone remember Ken Russell's "The Devils?"
I suppose one could nit pick the weak psychological and social motivations of the characters and the film: why exactly is Christine so upset? Why does the mother find it necessary to take her younger daughter's wages when she herself is employed?
One of the major set pieces of "Murderous Maids" is Christine in the Mayor's office hysterically demanding that Lea be emancipated from their mother that ends in Christine being thrown out for causing a scene. It is so filled with over-ripe passion and hate it singes your ears and makes your stomach ache. Now that is moviemaking!
"Murderous Maids" is the kind of movie that dares you to laugh it off or ignore it...but it is so fabulously over-the-top in a Douglas Sirk/Roman Polanski way that you won't be able to.

Rating:
Summary: A little long with a big punch
Review: Muderous is a slow movie in the begining as it shows the Christine and Lea. After waiting almost an hour, the movie give you a punch in the murder scene. It's as violent as any Hollywood movie. I would have liked some more extras on the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: chilling & effective
Review: the movie tells the story of two sisters, working as maids, who through a sad combination of servitude, ignorance, psychological ailments, incest & lack of privacy, brutally murder two of their employers.

the film captured me from the first scene, and i was riveted throughout- i gave it 4 instead of 5 stars, because i wanted more on their early childhood- but as the director comments in the included interview- 'what you leave out is as important as what you leave in'.

highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: chilling & effective
Review: the movie tells the story of two sisters, working as maids, who through a sad combination of servitude, ignorance, psychological ailments, incest & lack of privacy, brutally murder two of their employers.

the film captured me from the first scene, and i was riveted throughout- i gave it 4 instead of 5 stars, because i wanted more on their early childhood- but as the director comments in the included interview- 'what you leave out is as important as what you leave in'.

highly recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: REVENGE - and some incestuous lesbian scenes.........
Review: This case of murder has inspired many interesting adaptations over the years. The best being Jean Genet's fabulous one act play called the 'Maids'.
Whereas Genet's play focuses on the social role-playing that leads to the crime (in the play the murder is never actually shown) - this film adaptation gives us detailed background information about the sisters and focuses more on the possible sexual relationship between them (and their strong inseperability). It also gives a quite graphic picture of the actual murder. I found this film to be quite engaging on many levels - I am still more intellectually drawn to Genet's play, however, it leaves out more - but is effective in doing so.