History Film / LaCeremonie

The film tells the story of a friendship between two lower-class women played by Creator/IsabelleHuppert and Sandrine Bonnaire. The latter, Sophie, gets hired as a maid for a bourgeois family, the Lelièvres. Then she befriends the former, a postal worker, the angry Jeanne. Sophie, however, has difficulties working by Lelièvres as she can neither read nor count. Her work is, of course mostly manual but she also goes shopping groceries.

Her dysfuction results in a bitter turn of event for everyone.

It is a rumination on the relations between the well-off and accommodated and the unpriviledged and disfranchised. WordOfGod called it "the last Marxist film".

La Cérémonie is a 1995 film by Creator/ClaudeChabrol which because his biggest success after his two obvious peaks first in the late 50's then in the late 60's-early 70's. It is now considered one of his top movies.

The film tells the story of a friendship between two lower-class women played by Creator/IsabelleHuppert and Sandrine Bonnaire. The latter, Sophie, gets hired as a maid for a bourgeois family, the Lelièvres. Then she befriends the former, a postal worker, an angry Jeanne. Sophie, however, has difficulties working by Lelièvres as she can neither read nor count. Her work is, of course mostly manual but she also goes shopping groceries.

The film tells the story of a friendship between two lower-class women played by Creator/IsabelleHuppert and Sandrine Bonnaire. The latter, Sophie, gets hired as a maid in a bourgeois family of Lelièvres. Then she befriends the former, a postal worker, an angry Jeanne. Sophie, however, has difficulties working by Lelièvres as she can neither read nor count. Her work is, of course mostly manual but she also goes shopping groceries.

The film tells a story of a friendship between two lower-class women played by Creator/IsabelleHuppert and Creator/SandrineBonnaire. The latter, Sophie, gets hired as a maid in a bourgeois family of Lelièvres. Then she befriends the former, a postal worker, an angry Jeanne. Sophie, however, has difficulties working by Lelièvres as she can neither read nor count. Her work is, of course mostly manual but she also goes shopping groceries.

* BenevolentBoss: The Lelièvres consider themselves as this. They want to improve Sophie's living conditions: they send her to the oculist and they pay for it; they offer to pay her driving lessons. In particular, Melinda encourages the other members of her family to show respect for her. {{Subverted|Trope}} because they are naturally and unconsciously contemptuous toward her. Sophie resents them for this and in the end [[DisproportionateRetribution she takes revenge]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: For Jeanne Marchal who after the mass murder is hit to death by a car driven by the priest who dismissed her.]]

* {{Irony}}: The Lelièvres want to help Sophie. When she tells them that she cannot read because she has no glasses (she's lying: actually she cannot read), they send her to the oculist. Actually, it makes her more unconfortable and it will ultimately leads to [[the Lelièvres' murder]].

* BenevolentBoss: The Lelièvres consider themselves as this. They want to improve Sophie's living conditions: they send her to the oculist and they pay for it; they offer to pay her driving lessons. In particular, Melinda encourages the other members of her family to show respect for her. {{Subverted|Trope}} because they are naturally and unconsciously contemptuous toward her. Sophie resents them for this and in the end [[[[DisproportionateRetribution she takes revenge]].

* TheDogBitesBack: It might be that if one thinks that the Lelièvre family was in the wrong with Sophie, acting snobbish toward her. Which is very debatable and quite probably wrong.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The whole Lelièvre family is murdered by Sophie and Jeanne and Jeanne dies in a car accident.]]

* UntranslatedTitle: In English it is also La cérémonie.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: The whole family of Lelièvre]]

** Melinda's tape recorder. She receives it as a gift for her birthday. In the end, she uses it to record the opera TV programme and [[spoiler:so it also records the murder scene and it reveals Sophie's guilt to the police]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: For Jeanne Marchal who after the mass murder is hit to death by a car driven by her former chief who dismissed her for the embezzlement]]

* RedOniBlueOni: Jeanne Marchal is the red oni, Sophie Bonhomme is the blue oni.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. Indeed very loosely on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_and_Lea_Papin this one]][[spoiler: To begin with, the Papin murderers were obviously sisters and two women in the film are not. That's only to begin with, of course.]]

** Georges Lelièvre's hunting guns. He cleans them early in the film. In the end, [[:spoiler:Sophie and Jeanne use them to kill the whole family]].
** Melinda's tape recorder. She receives it as a gift for her birthday. In the end, she uses it to record the opera TV programme and [[:spoiler:so it also records the murder scene and it reveals Sophie's guilt to the police]].

* DownerEnding: [[:spoiler:The whole Lelièvre family is killed by Sophie and Jeanne. Jeanne dies in a car accident. The police discovers the murder, so Sophie is likely to be arrested soon.]]

* DownerEnding

* KarmaHoudini:
** It is implied that both Sophie Bonhomme and Jeanne Marchal might have gotten away with murder in the past.

* DysfunctionJunction: Sophie cannot reads and Jeanne is angry against the whole world.

Her dysfuction results in a bitter turn of event for everone around.

* BlackmailBackFire: Melinda, the daughter in the Lelièvre family discovers that Sophie cannot read. She offers her help to teach the woman reading. Sophie is enraged and, as she is aware that Melinda is pregnant, threatens to tell all that to her father. However Melinda immediately tells all to her father herself. Both about her pregnancy and a blackmail.

* UntranslatedTitle: In English it is also La Cérémonie.

** reminds of Marshal (though it is spelt slightly different in French)

The film tells a story of a friendship between two lower-class women played by Creator/IsabelleHuppert and Creator/SandrineBonnaire. The latter, Sophie, gets hired as a maid in a bourgeois family of Lelièvres. Then she befriends the former, a postal worker, an angry Jeanne. Sophie, however, has difficulties working by Lelièvres as she can neither read nor count. Her work is, of course mostly manuel but she also goes shopping groceries.

It is a rumination on the relations between the well-off and accomodated and the unpriviledged and disfranchised. WordOfGod called it "the last Marxist film".

** Sophie Bonhomme means exactly Sophie Goodwoman. Also Sophie means wisdom in Greek.

* BlackmailBackFire: Melinda, the daughter in the Lelièvre family discovers that Sophie cannot read. She offers her help to teach the woman. Sophie is enraged and, as she is aware that Melinda is pregnant threatens to tell all that to her father. However Melinda immediately tells all to her father herself. Both about her pregnancy and a blackmail.

La Cérémonie is a 1995 film by Creator/ClaudeChabrol which because his biggest success after his two obvious peaks first in the late 50's then in the late 60's-early70's. It is now considered one of his top movies.

It is a rumination on the relations between the well-off and accomodated and the unpriviledged and disfranchised. WordOfGod called it ""the last Marxist film".

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. Indeed very loosely on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_and_L%C3%A9a_Papin this one]][[spoiler: To begin with, the Papin murderers were obviously sisters and two women in the film are not. That's only to begin with, of course.]]