Two Sisters, Not Your Typical Servants

As literal a title as “Murderous Maids” is, it by no means tells all in regard to this most compelling psychological drama. Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Denis makes plausible a terrible incident that occurred in Le Mans in 1933--one that has inspired Jean Genet’s play “The Maids” and at least three films, including the outstanding 1994 English-language “Sister My Sister.”

“Murderous Maids” may well be the most comprehensive of these films and also strike closest to the truth. Working from Paulette Houdyer’s book “L’affaire Papin,” Denis is so skilled, imaginative and perceptive that he sustains his sympathetic, socially critical view of his heroines’ narrow existence.

Indeed, he spends a good portion of his film telling us about the lives of the sisters Christine and Lea Papin before they took their fateful posts as maids to the prosperous Lancelin family. Essentially, the film is Christine’s story. The eldest of three sisters, Christine (Sylvie Testud), early on begins feeling hatred for her often selfish and irresponsible mother Clemence (Isabelle Renauld), whose husband leaves her and who then packs off Christine, then 11, and her middle daughter Emilia to a convent school. A hoped-for rescue by their father, unsavory as he may be, is not in the works, for he is off to fight in World War I.

Christine, who begins working as a maid, becomes determined to protect her youngest sister Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier) from both their parents and make as secure a life for her as she can. Life as a domestic, however, only fuels her long-simmering inner rage, thanks to the severe, unfeeling treatment she receives from a succession of employers. Eventually, she is hired by Madame Lancelin (Dominique Labourier), who is impressed with Christine’s skill and her gift at anticipating tasks.

Madame Lancelin is far more humane than any of Christine’s previous employers, but she is exacting and can be a snob, taking for granted that servants know their place. (By contrast, in “Sister My Sister,” Julie Walters’ Madame Danzard is a monster, almost comically so, who not only treats her servants badly but also crushes the spirit of her near-adult daughter.)

Even so, the situation is the best Christine has known in her entire life, and she is thrilled when she’s able to get the Lancelins to hire Lea, who is sweet but not nearly as intelligent as her older sister. The sisters’ love for each other takes on a sexual dimension that neither was prepared for, but they embrace it rapturously. As happy as Christine is in Lea’s arms, this first experience with any joy in life heightens her anger with her constantly unsettling mother and her sense of injustice over her station in life as a maid. Christine has become volatile--it won’t take much to make her explode.

In short, Denis and Testud, in a wondrous collaboration of a gifted director and equally gifted actress, succeed in making Christine a tragic figure; she’s worthy of the sympathy easily extended to the innocent Lea, also beautifully played by Parmentier. Renauld’s Clemence, while not particularly likable and certainly not admirable, is not the monster her eldest daughter considers her to be. She’s just an ordinary woman, a hardy, self-serving survivor, and Renauld shows us all her sides.

“Murderous Maids” marks the return to the screen after a 12-year absence for Denis, little-known in the U.S. but an observant filmmaker whose visual grace matches his gift at directing actors. The truth of the Papins’ inner lives will never be known, even though, much to his surprise, Denis discovered that when he was making this film two years ago that Lea Papin was still alive at 88 but rendered unable to speak or write by a stroke.

*

Unrated. Times guidelines: adult themes, sex and nudity, extreme violence, although depicted discreetly.

‘Murderous Maids’

Sylvie Testud...Christine Papin

Julie-Marie Parmentier...Lea Papin

Isabelle Renauld...Clemence Papin

Dominique Labourier... Madame Lancelin

A Rialto Pictures release of an ARP production. Director Jean-Pierre Denis. Producers Michele (Halberstadt) Petin and Laurent Petin. Screenplay by Denis and Michele Halberstadt; based on the book “L’affaire Papin” by Paulette Houdyer. Cinematographer Jean-Marc Fabre. Editor Marie-Helene Dozo. Costumes Sylvie de Segonzac. Art director Bernard Vezat. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

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