Diary of a Chambermaid (2016) movie poster

Characters & Themes

Diary of a Chambermaid (2016) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Name: Diary of a Chambermaid
Genre: Drama
Released: 2016-06-10
Duration: 96 min
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Hervé Pierre, Clotilde Mollet

Release, runtime and language: 2016 · 96 min · French; #14,559 2
Directed by: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Hervé Pierre, Clotilde Mollet
Budget: $22M

A spirited young chambermaid is sent to work in a rural estate, finding herself at odds with her demanding employer. She becomes entangled in a complicated situation involving two men: the opportunistic Monsieur and the mysterious gardener Joseph. As she navigates the challenges of her new life, she must confront her own desires and the power dynamics within the household.

Drama Cast, crew & box office

On this page (3)

1 Where to watch
2 The book behind the movie
3 Every angle

Where to watch

Where to Watch Diary of a Chambermaid (2016)

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Characters, themes & setting

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The book behind the movie

The Diary of a Chambermaid

by Octave Mirbeau, Anna Højgaard Andersen, Hardy Andersen, John Baxter

Benoît Jacquot and Hélène Zimmer adapt Célestine's service with the Lanlaires, the sexually predatory husband, controlling wife, pregnant cook Marianne, enigmatic coachman Joseph, antisemitic politics, suspected murder of a child, and Célestine's morally compromised calculation about her future. Léa Seydoux's performance externalizes a diary voice that ranges across many earlier employers in Mirbeau; the film selects fewer memories and keeps its action more tightly around the Normandy household and Joseph. It also fixes the period near the Dreyfus-era politics that the novel attacks. The plot is directly drawn from the book, while the physical edition restores the episodic employment history and unstable first-person judgments lost through condensation.

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Every angle

Diary of a Chambermaid (2016) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

Everything about Diary of a Chambermaid in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

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