Octave Mirbeau Movies
- 1976
Combining softcore pornography and historical romance, this film tells the story of a Antoine, a physician (Roger Van Hool) who, in 1888, has been exiled to China due to his drug habit. On the way there, he gets to know a polymorphously perverse girl (Jacqueline Kerry) who becomes his girlfriend. She is the daughter of a local colonial overlord in Canton, whose cruelty and brutality are legendary. Based on a novel by Octave Mirbeau, this film parallels Antoine's descent into erotic obsession with the increasing degeneracy and precariousness of colonial rule. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roger Van Hool, Jacqueline Kerry, (more)
The second screen version of Octave Mirbeau's novel (originally filmed in 1946 by Jean Renoir), Diary of a Chambermaid charts the ambitions of Celestine (Jeanne Moreau), a woman who comes to work in the 1930s for a Normandy estate occupied by Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne), his daughter (Francoise Lugagne), and the daughter's husband, Monsieur Montiel (Michel Piccoli). Celestine quickly learns that M. Rabour is a more or less harmless boot fetishist, his daughter a frigid woman more concerned with the family furnishings than in returning the affections of her husband, who, in turn, can't keep his hands off the servants. The gamekeeper, Joseph (Georges Geret), is a fascist who keeps his masters informed of all the doings downstairs, and the next-door neighbor (Daniel Ivernel) is a veteran who can't stand Monteil and is sharing a bed with his housekeeper. Celestine picks her way through this minefield carefully, spurning the advances of all of the men until it's convenient for her. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1946
Based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau, Diary of a Chambermaid is a noble experiment: a "Continental" sex drama with a virtually all-Anglo cast. Paulette Goddard plays the title character, a saucy servant named Celestine whose forthrightness has a curious effect on a wealthy Parisian household. Determined to elevate her lot in life, Celestine uses her unsubtle charms to beguile her wishy-washy master, Monsieur Lanlaire (Reginald Owen), and Lanlaire's wastrelly son, Georges (Hurd Hatfield). She also inadvertently inspires the lovesick valet Joseph (Francis Lederer) to steal from the family and kill Georges. Burgess Meredith, Goddard's then-husband, delivers an astonishing performance as Mauger, the Lanlaires' bizarre, shell-shocked neighbor (he also wrote the screenplay and co-produced). Diary of a Chambermaid was remade by Luis Buñuel in 1964, with Jeanne Moreau in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, (more)
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