The Diary of a Chambermaid

Gianina, a young Romanian woman, works as a domestic helper in France for the wealthy Marguerite and Pierre Donnadieu, which means cleaning day and night and looking after their spoilt child. In her spare time, she performs on stage and, on Marguerite’s recommendation, is now appearing in Le Journal d’une femme de chambre, a stage adaptation of Octave Mirabeau’s satirical and socially critical novel from 1900. Gianina’s daughter Maria, who has been left behind in Romania with her grandmother, is not at all happy that her mother is not at home and demands that she come back. Gianina promises to be home for Christmas, but an incident at the Donnadieu household threatens to throw a spanner in the works.

Mirabeau’s novel has been adapted for the screen several times, including by Jean Renoir in 1946 and Luis Buñuel in 1964; it is a novel that satirises the mores of the affluent middle classes in an inimitable way.  Director Radu Jude, whose Kontinental 25 was recently screened, presents two versions of the story in this film: the film itself and the play in which Gianina performs.