Program – Shame and Scandal

So, the new hired girl arrives to the household. Does she fit in? Does the family accept her? What secrets will she discover?

"I Walked With A Zombie" is another smart Val Lewton produced horror (but not really horror) movie from the 1940s. It riffs on "Jane Eyre", the near slavery of sugar cane plantation workers, and of course, the undead. There are a few frightening moments, but the movie is about a culture where births are mourned as another soul comes into the world of misery and deaths are celebrated as the soul's delivery to heaven.

Claude Chabrol described "La Ceremonie" (French) as "the last Marxist film." An upper class family living in the country hires Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) as their new housekeeper. After many mistaken assumptions and misunderstood communications, abetted by the quirky local postal worker Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), mayhem ensues. Chabrol doesn't allow us to be entertained by this. He wants to confront us with it instead. Effective and moving.