Chabrol has always been interested in the class divide. From "Pretty Sergey", "Cousin" to this "Grim Ritual". The difference is that in "Cousin", the gun is aimed at a cousin who has nothing, and this film is aimed at a middle-class family. The film uses a lot of life details to show Sophie's psychological changes and accumulation of hatred as an illiterate maid.
Sophie was favored by her wife through an interview and a letter of recommendation from the previous owner. The wife and Sophie agreed on a meeting time, but Sophie arrived a train earlier. She wanted to make a good impression on the new employer, and at the same time Alluding to the inclination of class. The new employer's family is a family of four, a husband and wife and a pair of children. Their attitude towards Sophie was very friendly, and her husband suggested to buy glasses for Sophie when she learned that Sophie had poor eyesight. Knowing that Sophie can't drive, she proposes to help Sophie sign up to learn how to drive. The husband will take Sophie to the optical shop, and the daughter will take Sophie home. Such a friendly employer-family setting is exactly what Chabrol complicates the direction of the film. Chabrol didn't want the film to be just a simple class antagonism, black and white, but wanted to show more gray areas. So Chabrol made Sophie illiterate and illiterate. The poor eyesight was just a lie Sophie made up to hide her illiterate, which made everything complicated and interesting. Chabrol did not use money and status to create class contradictions, but used culture and knowledge. So with the employer's friendly attitude, the class contradictions continue to worsen, especially on the Sufi side. This deepening of individual inferiority is as much a breeding ground for hatred as class exploitation.
Sophie is increasingly unable to cope with the daily work of her employer's family. She couldn't understand the note left by the lady, so she had to use the note to interpret the sign language marked in her book, but it was still difficult to reach the sky. Faced with the shopping list left by her wife, she was so devastated that she had to turn to her friend Jane for help. The employer called and asked Sophie to help find the documents on the table. Sophie immediately hung up the phone, ran to the room, turned on the TV, and turned it on to the loudest, and entered her own utopian world. All the embarrassment comes from Sufi's lack of cultural knowledge and self-esteem.
Of course, Chabrol wouldn't attribute all the mistakes to Sophie, that would be too boring. So employers will talk loudly about Sophie at home, such as she must not drive, she is not allowed to touch her books, etc. At the same time, she will be given some tasks outside the work content, which is additional exploitation. Every time she was in a bad mood, Sophie locked herself in her room and watched TV, which was her only way of venting, while the family of four of her employers watched opera in the lobby. The aesthetic differences of classes are shown through television.
Sophie's only friend is Jane, who works at the post office. Jane is a cynical, wealthy woman who also volunteers for the church recycling old clothes. She would take advantage of her job to open emails from Sophie's employers, which made her male employers have a lot of opinions about her. Sophie always sneaks Jane into her room to have fun. Jane tries on the hostess' expensive clothes and calls others prostitutes. All Jane's discourse of class antagonism combined with the Sufi's living condition keeps the seeds of hatred growing. In the conversation between Sophie and Jane, she learned that Sophie once set fire to her father, and Jane accidentally burned her four-year-old daughter to death. They are not innocent weak people, they all have anti-social personalities, which also keeps the theme of the film neutral and unbiased.
Sophie exposes her illiteracy while playing a quiz game with her employer's daughter. She threatened her employer's daughter not to speak out or to tell her father about the pregnancy. But the daughter still told Sophie's secret to her family, and Sophie was fired. This was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Sophie's psychological defense line completely collapsed. Not only did she lose her job, but more importantly, her self-esteem completely fell in front of this family. She and Jane sneaked back to their employer's house, tore their clothes to shreds, poured soup on the bed, made a mess of the room, and shot and killed the family of four. When they fired, they were unusually calm, without hesitation, and extremely cold. During the early escape, Jane was hit and killed when she started the car, only Sophie was left to calmly clean up the room and guns, and then left calmly...
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