For a while now I have been knocking off watchlist films that critic Roger Ebert, one of my personal heroes, had listed as his favorite films. The list is found here on MUBI. It has been such a wonderful journey to rediscover the ones I loved already as well as find new movies to devour. One of life’s greatest gifts is discovering and recommending a wonderful movie to another.
My most recent from the list was the 1995 film La Cérémonie (also known as A Judgement in Stone) directed by Claude Chabrol. It’s based on a novel that was loosely inspired by a true crime story.
It follows a maid, Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) as she’s hired by Catherine (Jacqueline Bisset) the matriarch of the wealthy Lelièvre family. Sophie is a bit standoffish and as we soon learn, has a violent history. She’s also illiterate, something she tries to hide from the family: husband Georges and children Melinda and Gilles.
This was a film that I avoided knowing anything about going in and I’m incredibly grateful that I did. One of the most memorable factors of La Cérémonie is the energy; both the depletion and the untamed sort that surrounds our two leads.
Sophie begins a friendship with a local postmistress Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), who is the town outcast. Spurned by rumors of her own suspicious past, Jeanne is often ridiculed and consistently does things just to mess with others (including opening the mail of the Lelièvre family). Sophie sees something in her that hovers between a kinship and an individual prowess she wishes to exhibit herself.
La Cérémonie despite its humor and odd pace (which aptly matches the strangeness of its leads) hints at something ugly to come.
Isabelle Huppert is outrageous, singularly unrelentless. She hijacks every scene she is in and her character is undettered by anyone she encounters. The command for which she carries, as well as what she extends to Sophie makes them each develop in erratic and dangerous ways. Sophie troubles with the family get worse from her association with Jeanne, until she’s eventually let go. It’s nonchalant with its insults at times, with a a slow simmer of resentment cooking to violent ends.
In the last year we’ve seen quite a few films about financial disparities and the trend of “eat the rich.” La Cérémonie is and isn’t that, for its revenge and stature feel foreseen and yet impulsive. The casualness in which the eventual carnage is cast is disquieting. Claude Chabrol exudes a confidence in the direction and the excellence in acting carries the picture.
It’s a tense and unnerving film that seethes with an unabashedly chilling timbre. Throughout its runtime I felt the uneasiness but it’s presented in such a peculiar way that there were surprises to be found in the rare details. It doesn’t shy from these characters unusual nature or their inner demons. Yet, I couldn’t stop watching.
Stealthily clever, La Cérémonie revels in its peculiarity with a sharp edge. This was a hell of a gem, I won’t soon forget.
La Cérémonie is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Cinematic Lovelies 
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