DVD
The maids
Call Number
- DVD DRAMA (CEN)
Performers
Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Vivien Merchant, Mark Burns.
Publication Information
New York, NY : Kino on Video, [2003]
Physical Description
1 videodisc (94 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
MPAA rating: PG.
Summary
The Maids volatile mixture of class confrontation, Freudian passion and criminal mischief frames an acid-etched portrait of two sisters whose hatred and desire twist their tortured lives together into a relentless downward spiral of guilt, degradation and freedom at any cost. Solange and Claire are Paris maids who tend to cruel socialite Madame's unending domestic needs. Whenever Madame is away, the sisters obsessively act out a complex role-playing psychodrama of domination and control that feeds their powerful lust for revenge upon the haughty, disdainful mistress they serve. But after falsely denouncing Madame's lover to the police, Solange and Clarie's shared terror of arrest and the unchecked aggression with which they increasingly infuse their "ceremony" threaten to destroy them even as they perch on the threshold of ecstatic release.
Notes
Title from container.
Based on the play by Jean Genet.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1975.
Special features: Theatrical trailer ; "Jean Genet and The maids," an essay by Michael Feingold, Chief Theater Critic, The Village Voice ; The AFT Cinebill for The maids ; stills gallery ; An interview with Edie Landau, executive in charge, The American Film Theatre ; Ely Landau: in front of the camera, AFT promotional reel (1974) ; The American Film Theatre trailer gallery ; The American Film Theatre scrapbook.