LA CEREMONIE
A film review by Froilan Vispo
Copyright 1997 Froilan Vispo
***1/2 out of ****
The Lelievre family watches a television broadcast of Mozart's opera DON GIOVANNI where Leporello serenades a servant-girl, imploring her to come to the window. Those watching the opera feel safe in the knowledge that although the scene is a deception (not wanting to be recognized, Don Giovanni has hidden himself in some bushes and has ordered his servant Leporello to lip-synch to his song), it is a comic one and the intentions of Don Giovanni are amorous in nature. Unknown to the Lelievres, their new housekeeper had received a beckoning from a stranger and even allowed her inside their home.
There is no deception to LA CEREMONIE. In fact, its narrative - that of a stranger introduced into the home - rings familiar but its unfolding unnerves nevertheless.
Much of the success of LA CEREMONIE can be attributed to the faultless acting of all involved, especially Sandrine Bonnaire who plays Sophie, the new housekeeper hired by the wealthy Lelievres to tend their grand country home. Bonnaire's performance lulls like anaesthesia, assuring us that the foibles are trivial and that the disquiet in our minds is undeserved.
Initially, Sophie proves quite capable although strangely quiet and complacent. Some household duties exhibit that this exterior calm is a shaky one, however, but Sophie is boundlessly resourceful in her determination to keep her shortcoming a secret from the Lelievres. As we learn more about what lies underneath Sophie's calm facade - her easy frustration, her steel resolve and its resulting resourcefulness - the overall impression becomes less reassuring indeed.
After Sophie allows Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), the village postal clerk, into the Lelievre home, through the window even, the two quickly establish a friendship. Their initial antics seem harmless enough, bordering on childish play and slumber party mischief. Like Sophie, Jeanne also has her own secrets judging by the rumours swirling about her. As Sophie's relationship with the Lelievres deteriorates, both women find themselves isolated from everyone else in the village except each other. It is a perfect and disturbing fit: Jeanne rambles on contemptuously against everyone else, complete with gossip involving each of the Lelievres, while Sophie plays the blank but impressionable slate who willingly assists Jeanne's minor conspiracies against her employers. Or is Sophie the willing co-conspirator with devices of her own?
What does the title refer to, "the ceremony?" The word, with all its nuances, is an apt one, but the most disturbing dictionary definition is this: an action performed only formally with no deep significance. I will take refuge in the faint hope that the nonchalant senselessness of it all was supposed to mean something, to be symbolic. What is certain is that LA CEREMONIE allows few refuges.
Address e-mail for Froilan Vispo to vispo@bigfoot.com
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