The Maids

Infobox Film
name = The Maids


image_size = 175px
caption =
director = Christopher Miles
producer = Robert Enders
writer = Robert Enders
Jean Genet (play)
narrator =
starring = Glenda Jackson
Susannah York
Vivien Merchant
music =
cinematography = Douglas Slocombe
editing =
distributor = The American Film Theatre
released = 1974
runtime = 95 mins
country = UK
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0071798

"The Maids" ("Les Bonnes") is a play by the French writer Jean Genet, written in 1947.

The Work

Genet loosely based his play on the infamous Papin sisters, Lea and Christine, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933, although the play is not the story of the Papin sisters as such. Solange and Claire are two housemaids who construct elaborate sadomasochistic rituals when their mistress (Madame) is away. The focus of their theatrical playing is the murder of Madame, and they take turns portraying either side of the power divide. The deliberate pace and devotion to detail guarantees that they always fail to actualize their fantasies by ceremoniously "killing" Madame at the ritual's denouement. The play was first produced by Louis Jouvet in 1947. [Banham (1998, 417).]

The story can be read as an absurdist exposition on the intricate power dynamic that exists between unequals.

Before it was filmed for the American Film Theatre, it ran at the Greenwich Theatre, London, with the same principal cast later used for the film version.

In 1974 "The Maids" was made into a film directed by Christopher Miles, and starring Glenda Jackson as Solange, Susannah York as Claire, Vivien Merchant as Madame, and Mark Burns as Monsieur. The cinematographer Douglas Slocombe deliberately implemented many of Genet's theatrical devices for the film. The camera was often static, the settings lush and extravagant.

The story of the Papin sisters was filmed in 1995 as "Sister My Sister", starring British actresses Joely Richardson, Jodhi May and Julie Walters. The film was directed by Nancy Meckler and written by Wendy Kesselman.

The case was also the subject of "Murderous Maids" ("Les Blessures Assassines"'), a French film starring Sylvie Testud and Julie-Marie Parmentier and directed by Jean-Pierre Denis, released in 2000.

Footnotes

References

* Ian Magedera, "Jean Genet: Les Bonnes" (Glasgow: Glasgow Introductory Guides to French Literature, 1998) ISBN 0852616503
* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.

External links

*imdb title|id=0071798|title=The Maids