Murderous Maids

Starring:Sylvie Testud, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Isabelle Renauld, Dominique Labourier, FranÃ§ois Levantal, Jean-Gabriel Nordmann, Tessa Szczeciniarz, Charlotte Guille, Marie Donnio, Camille Leproust, Nadia Barentin, Lily Boulogne, Jean Terensier, Alain Rimoux, MichaÃ«l Abiteboul, Brigitte Antonicelli, Didier Bardoux, SÃ©verine Batier, NoÃ«lle Cazenave, Blanche Raynal
Director: Jean-Pierre Denis
Studio: Homevision
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

The Definitive Papin Film
I don't ever want to see this movie again!
A Profoundly Moving, Gripping Tale of Class Unrest and the Impact of Social Marginalization
HYPNOTIC...DEPRESSING...SHOCKING...
"So this is what a maid is..."

Murderous Maids
Starring: Sylvie Testud , Julie-Marie Parmentier , Isabelle Renauld , Dominique Labourier , and François Levantal
Director: Jean-Pierre Denis
Manufacturer: Homevision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Sister My Sister
The Maids
Tipping the Velvet
Army of Shadows - Criterion Collection
Fire

ASIN: B0000AQS4F
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Customer Reviews:

The Definitive Papin Film.......2007-06-24

"Murderous Maids" is the second film I've seen about France's Papin sisters, two domestics who, in the early 1930's, savagely murdered their employer and her daughter. Slightly superior to "Sister, My Sister", Britain's Papin film, "Murderous Maids", based on the book "L'affaire Papin", not only possesses a greater degree of psychological sophistication, but is more historically accurate. That being said, "Murderous Maids" (or, more correctly, "Les Blessures Assassines") more or less winds up being a showcase for the sublime performance given by Sylvie Testud, who, despite no physical resemblance, brings us as close as I believe is humanly possible to touching the strange entity that was Christine Papin--and it's about as close as most people would want to get. Julie-Marie Parmentier as co-star is dutifully overshadowed, much as her character Lea lived in the shadow of her older sister Christine in actual life. Their love scenes are both sweet and sexy, which makes for an intriguing juxtaposition to the off-putting gruesomeness of the murders. While these women (particularly Christine) felt victimized by their lowly social status, their chaotic family romance (manipulative, self-absorbed mother; absent father) played a parallel role in determining their (and their employer's) unfortunate fate.

I don't ever want to see this movie again!.......2007-06-08

As one reviewer said below, this is one movie you only need to see once...and once is enough! I don't know why I was able to stomach "Sister My Sister"--another movie based on the same events--and not this one.

A Profoundly Moving, Gripping Tale of Class Unrest and the Impact of Social Marginalization.......2007-05-02

Murderous Maids
MURDEROUS MAIDS (LES BLESSURES ASSASSINES) is a tremendously powerful look at the complexities and subtleties underlying the 1933 murders committed in Le Mans, France by the Papin sisters. Though the film has all the ingredients that could easily have made it an exploitative potboiler (incest, lesbianism, murder), it is anything but that!! INSTEAD, it is a film that studies in quiet detail a relationship between two sisters marginalized by society because they are merely maids and how their repressed "selves" explode when they reach their breaking points. In terms of the social context of the characters, these women are voiceless and repressed outside the confines of their meager quarters in the attic of their employer. The bond that they develop is as much out of revolt against society as it is out of profound desire and genuine love for one another. In the hands of a less astute director, the film would have failed. But, in the hands of director Jean-Pierre Denis, it triumphs boldly. The true burning center of the film is actress Sylvie Testud. Her performance as the elder sister whose alliance with her younger sister turns into a case of amour fou, is positively riveting. She is by turns taciturn and passionate, fiercely intelligent and wildly insane, profoundly sad and deeply in love. There were times while watching her on screen when I truly forgot that I was watching a performance. I honestly believed she was this woman she was playing. This has only happened to me one or two times in my film-watching life, and it stunned me this time more than ever before. Though the crime these women are guilty of is horrific and the relationship they develop is problematic, their story is totally compelling and the film is extraordinary.

HYPNOTIC...DEPRESSING...SHOCKING..........2005-06-29

This film tells the tawdry story of the notorious Papin sisters, and it is quite a story. In early 1933, a crime of dreadful and shocking brutality stunned the nation of France, and its citizens watched in horror as the facts unfolded. The Papin sisters, Christine and Lea, stood accused of savagely murdering their employer, Madame Lancelin, and her daughter, Genevieve, in the household where they worked as maids.

In late 1933, the trial resulted in the elder sister, Christine, being convicted of both murders and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to that of life in prison. She would die four years later in an asylum for the criminally insane. Her younger sister, Lea, was also convicted, but only of the murder of Madame Lancelin, and was sentenced to serve ten years of hard labor. She served eight years of her ten year sentence and was then released, living to a ripe old age.

In the film, the viewer sees that the sisters came from a totally dysfunctional household. Their mother, the selfish and unloving Clemence (Isabel Renauld), kicked her alcoholic husband out the household, when she discovered that he had been molesting their oldest daughter, Emilie. She then placed their three daughters in a Catholic orphanage run by nuns. Clemence, relieved of the day-to-day responsibility of her daughters, would see them on occasion.

Emilie eventually decided to become a nun. When Christine later expressed an interest in following in Emilie's footsteps, her mother quashed that notion. Instead, as Christine (Sylvie Testud) grew older, Clemence looked to her as a source of income, hiring her out to work as a maid. The viewer sees the deadening effect of her servitude, as her employers treat Christine as a virtual nonentity. Initially, Christine tested the patience of some of her earlier employers to whom she was, at times, slyly insolent. Later, she resorted to passive-aggressive behavior.

As time passes, however, Christine becomes more superficially accepting of her lot in life. Yet, the viewer can see an embittered Christine internalize her resentment, frustration, and dissatisfaction with her situation. Eventually, Christine's relationship with her mother totally deteriorates, and it is clear that there is little love lost between the two. Consequently, Christine grows up to be a tightly wound young woman, polite, reticent, and quiet, but seething with a strong current of emotion beneath the surface.

After a number of jobs as a maid, Christine finally finds a post with the well-to-do Lincelan family in the town of Le Mans. When Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier) grows older, Clemence seeks to place her as a maid, as well. Having vowed that she would always look after her younger sister, Lea, Christine hatches a scheme. Not wanting to be separated from her sister, Christine manipulates her employer and ensures that Lea is placed with her in the Lincelan home.

At first, all seems well, although they find themselves looking for ways of circumventing the pettiness of their employer's frugality towards them. Then, Christine and Lea's relationship begins to change. Eventually, the somewhat dim Lea would come under the total domination of her sister. They would spend all their time together, and their close, sisterly relationship would develop a sexual component, leading to a shocking, incestuous relationship, with Lea always following Christine's lead.

One day, Madame Lincelan and her daughter return home unexpectedly, while Christine and Lea are engaged in activities other than their chores. When Christine goes to head them off at the pass, all hell breaks loose, as she takes some pretty extreme action towards them. Lea joins her in forever silencing the petty despots who had ruled their lives with an iron fist. These whirling dervishes of destruction would show no mercy.

This is a very well acted film. Sylvie Testud turns in a bravura performance as the edgy, emotionally repressed, and mentally unbalanced Christine. Julie-Marie Parmentier lends a dewy innocence to the role of Lea. The rest of the cast likewise gives excellent performances. The cinematography is suitably neutral in tone, lending a stark, austere quality to the film. This is a film that will keep the viewer riveted, but in the end it can hardly be said to be enjoyable in the accepted sense, as the emotions that it conjures are so disquieting. Still, this is a deftly directed, well acted film that is certainly worth seeing, especially if one is a true crime aficionado.

"So this is what a maid is...".......2005-02-01

"Murderous Maids" is the true story of the notorious Papin sisters who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in 1933. The film begins with sisters Emilia and Christine dragged off to a convent school where Emilia begins to take her vows as a nun. The Papin family is a troubled one. Emilia was raped by her father, and the rest of the film makes us wonder what happened to Christine (Sylvie Testud) to make her commit the horrible crime she was eventually tried for and found guilty.

Clemence (Isabelle Renauld), Christine's mother, isn't exactly a saint either. Christine expresses an interest in becoming a nun too, but that notion is squashed by her mother who stands to profit from her daughters' employment. One senses that being a nun--while not exactly a burning desire for Christine--is at least preferable to a life of servitude as a maid. Christine becomes a servant in the homes of the wealthy, and the only joy in her life is her younger, not very bright sister, Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier). Christine is extremely protective of Lea, and this protectiveness mutates into an incestuous lesbian relationship between the unhappy pair.

I can't say that I enjoyed this film very much--but at the same time I do recognize the fact that it's extremely well made and well acted. However, that said, the film is painful and depressing to watch. Christine's life of servitude is full of misery. She is constantly under the watchful gaze of a series of petty-minded employers who monitor every move she makes. One employer even goes to the extremes of wearing white gloves and wiping the furniture to see that it's perfectly clean. Christine and Lea eventually share a dismal bare attic room where they even have to resort to hiding the light bulb--another extravagance their demanding employer, Madame Lincelan (Dominque Labourier) considers wasteful.

Personally, I find the servant-master relationship distasteful, corrupting, and unnatural at best, but Christine's lot is beyond reason. She becomes silent--completely dehumanized--and yet she's held to the highest of standards and expected to intuit her employers' every petty whim. To them she is less than human--and that's what she becomes. And as Christine satisfies her employers' demands, they fail to heed the warning signs. Nothing, however excuses the brutal murders and violence that occur in the household. The film evokes pity and then dismay as one realizes that Christine feels trapped, and there's an inevitable, horrific event waiting to happen. Sylvie Testud delivers a chilling performance as the twitchy, deeply troubled Christine--a miserable girl who suppresses all her emotion until it tragically explodes--displacedhuman

DVD:

DVD

The Aristocats [1970]

DVD: Where the Heart Is

Alive & Kicking