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Murderous Maids (Les
Blessures assassines) (2002)
ARP Selection, 1 hr. 34 mins.
Starring:
Sylvie Testud, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Isabelle Renauld,
Dominique Labourier
Directed by:
Jean-Pierre Denis |
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Director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Denis
delivers a taut and achingly robust period piece drama in the shockingly
compelling "Murderous Maids". This probing narrative tells the tale of the
notorious French Papin sisters and their criminal wrongdoing in 1933
France where they brutally murdered their employer and her daughter. Denis
brilliantly pours on the psychological edginess by cleverly contrasting
the class struggles and emotional baggage that ultimately gives credence
to the heinous Papins' crimes. In fact, "Murderous Maids" joins a series
of notable films dedicated to the infamous Papin siblings with such fare
as "The Maids", "Sister My Sister" and "La Ceremonie". The unstable
personal relationships and the soulless conflict behind the brimming
madness gives "Murderous Maids" enough tragic fiber to make this a
haunting and intriguing affair to behold.
Older control freak Christine Papin (Sylvie Testud) and the younger
clueless teen sib Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier) eventually go to work as
housemaids for the snooty Madame Lancelin (Dominique Labourier). As we
soon learn, the Papin gals aren't just your ordinary servant sisters meant
to tend to their duties as assigned. They are also incestuous lesbian
lovers in addition to their unflattering label as complicated killers. To
say that Christine and Lea have some serious major issues is a blatant
understatement in the making.
The interesting dichotomy here isn't so much the sisters' dealings with
their boss Madame Lancelin as it is with their complexed and strained
feeling for their single mother (Isabelle Renauld). Apparently there are
eery shadows of resentment and rejection in the minds of the girls,
particularly in Christine where she felt that her mother didn't do enough
in the nurturing department. Feeling alienated by her mother's emotional
brush-off routine (such as dumping her in a convent school in an effort to
duck her maternal responsibilities), the rebellious Christine gradually
develops an ominous void in her psyche. Meanwhile, the impressionable Lea
unknowingly becomes a pawn for Christine's quest for genuine love and
affection from her distant and demanding mother. The only Papin sister to
escape such family-related turmoil is Christine and Lea's elder sister
Emilia (who's fortunate enough to leave the rocky nest in order to serve
her devotion to God as a nun).
As the Papins do their "maid-to-order" bit around the Lancelin household
during the day, the pair engage in a twisted and tumultuous tete-a-tete in
the evening. There's something that can definitely be said for the
strangely erotic connection between the sisters' dependency on one
another. Specifically, it's Christine's warped smothering effect and
dangerously overbearing influence on Lea that's particularly notable.
What's so clever is that Denis introduces some thought-provoking pondering
for the sudden dalliances between these off-balanced siblings. Are the
incestuous acts between Christine and Lea meant to retaliate against their
mother for her long-standing indifference? Or is the confused Christine
simply using her youthful sibling/lover as an envious tactic to combat her
own personal insecurities and sexual inadequacies? And by bedding down
Lea, does this ensure thwarting her innocence as a way for Christine to
challenge the ever-so blunt elements of sibling rivalry?
Things finally come to a boil when Madame Lancelin and her daughter
Genevieve happen to inadvertently walk in on a very embarassing intimate
moment in the sack between the two sisters. In a chilling exhibition of
frustration culminated by years of repressed rage, Christine begins to
butcher the Lancelins to death as if to release a lifetime of demons in
that one horrific instance. And Lea, in some bewildering sense of unity
for her sister's abhorent outrage, joins in this detestable episode by
repeatedly stabbing these women as well.
"Murderous Maids" is based upon the riveting book "L'Affaire Papin" by
Paulette Houdyer. As a filmmaker, Denis brings some invigorating and
provocative tension to Houdyer's deliciously deviant account of mayhem
inflicted upon a dysfunctional family unit. Denis and co-writer Michele
Petin's impeccable screenplay penetrates with a rawness that that is both
unflinching and tantalizing. Lead provocatuers Testud and Parmentier give
superlative performances as the related lovelorn lasses whose taboo-ridden
sexual relationship is the very impetus for the early twentieth century
misguided discovery of pending womanhood and all its tricky ambivalent
connotations.
Perceptive and oddly captivating, "Murderous Maids" is an imaginative and
peculiar social commentary on the growth process and the fragile
consequences that the indelible lost human spirit can only endure for so
long. This is a poetically perverse study of undeniable angst and the
breakdown of one's mental facilities.
Enthralling in its ability to toss around an array of sentiment that range
from forbidden pleasure to self-destructing anxiety, no one will think
twice to cross the Papin duo by asking them to wash the windows once
again! After all, in Denis's demented and revealing showcase they may do
just that - while using your blood in which to cleanse these very same
windows! |
