" The Ceremony is a film about the class struggle, about humiliation, about social difference." Sandrine Bonnaire
The wealthy Lelièvre family, who live in an isolated house in Brittany, near Saint-Malo, hires a new maid, Sophie. She quickly becomes friends with Jeanne, a cheeky and curious postwoman. Once discovered the illiteracy that Sophie carefully hid, the tension mounts. Combined with the aggressiveness of the postwoman against the Lelièvres, the deep wound of the maid could well lead to tragedy.
“I am interested in the Lelièvres because they prefer to appear so rather than to be so and because they live in a certain form of bourgeois harmony. Except that each of them performs a disgusting action at some point, and what's more, without realizing it. And it always falls on the poor maid played by Sandrine Bonnaire. The way in which pettiness is adorned with false good manners is quite pleasing. – Claude Chabrol
CEREMONY
1995 – Colors – 111 mins
New Master Restored 4K
French original version
Audio description
Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Available in single Blu-ray or DVD editions
SUPPLEMENTS
. PRESENTATION OF THE FILM BY JOËL MAGNY (2 mins)
. COMMENTS BY CLAUDE CHABROL (28 mins)
Claude Chabrol explains four scenes from the film.
. SHOOTING OF THE FILM (19 mins)
. INTERVIEW WITH CAROLINE ELIACHEFF, CO-SCREENWRITER OF THE FILM (9 mins)
The psychoanalyst and child psychiatrist Caroline Eliacheff explains how certain news items become revealing of an era and provides some possible explanations for the swing of the two heroines towards murderous madness.
. CONVERSATION WITH SANDRINE BONNAIRE (2020 – Unpublished – 12 mn – HD*)
Actress Sandrine Bonnaire remembers her character in La Cérémonie and her work with Claude Chabrol.
. ORIGINAL TRAILER
* in HD on the Blu-ray Disc™ version
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BD 50 • HIGH DEFINITION MASTER • 1080/23.98p • AVC ENCODING • French version DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 / Audio description Dolby Digital 2.0 • Deaf and hard of hearing subtitles • 1.66 format respected • Colors • Film length: 112 mins
DVD 9 – NEW RESTORED MASTER • French version Dolby Digital 2.0 • Audio description Dolby Digital 2.0 • Deaf and hard of hearing subtitles • 1.66 format respected • 16/9 compatible 4/3 – Colors
Released April 7, 2021
Also available:
• CLAUDE CHABROL box set
• Hell
• Nothing works anymore
• Thanks for the chocolate
• The Flower of Evil
