Jean Renoir's The Diary of a Chambermaid is a film stuck between two different cultures and two very different film industries. Based on the play of the same name by Octave Mirbeau, The Diary of a Chambermaid follows Celestine, the new chambermaid of the Lanlaires family. After being jilted from one position to another for years, Celestine has decided that she has had enough of life as a servant. So she has made up her mind to try and seduce a rich man so she will never have to work again. Renoir's narrative wanders as she moves between three possible suitors: the Lanlaire's hedonistic neighbor Mauger, the Lanlaire's sinister valet Joseph, and the young Georges Lanlaire. Renoir takes pleasure in depicting all three of these characters and their different class statuses.
But the film is thematically and tonally uneven. The film is largely a light-hearted farce until the last thirty minutes or so when it transforms into a dour drama. As a result, it feels like Renoir spliced together two different films. I guess that the sheer spectacle of Renoir, one of the cinema's greatest humanists, veer into cynicism is worth the price of admission alone for cineastes. But I left The Diary of a Chambermaid with an odd feeling of emptiness. It isn't focused enough to work as a Hollywood film. Clearly, while filming The Diary of a Chambermaid, Renoir had his thoughts and ambitions elsewhere...perhaps back in his native France.
6/10
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