La Cérémonie

In Chabrol’s late masterpiece, an adaptation of a Ruth Rendell novel, class resentment accumulates with the patience of a pressure cooker when a wealthy family hire a new housekeeper. A wealthy family hire a new housekeeper, who forms an unlikely alliance with the volatile local postmistress. What follows is one of the most electrifying films of the 1990s. Adapted from Ruth Rendell’s novel, La Cérémonie is Chabrol’s late masterpiece: a film in which class resentment accumulates with the terrible patience of a pressure cooker, before releasing itself in an act of violence that feels both shocking and inevitable. Contains scenes of graphic violence or injury, sexist attitudes and language, and racism. The screening of La Cérémonie on Thursday 1 October will include an extended intro on queer Chabrol by academic Kit Francis Bradbury Rance.