Les abysses
France • 1963
Director
Synopsis
Inspired by the notorious case of Christine and Léa Papin—French sisters working as maids who murdered their employer’s wife and daughter in 1933—Nico Papatakis’s debut feature was a succès de scandale that was boycotted by Cannes’s selection committee in 1963. A furiously anarchic, expressionistically heightened dissection of class relations, LES ABYSSES unfolds in a country home where domestic servants Michèle and Marie-Louise (played by real-life sisters Francine and Colette Bergé) are cruelly exploited by the family they work for. When their abusive employers push them too far, it provokes a shocking rebellion that doubles as a provocative metaphor for Algerian resistance against French colonialism.
Synopsis
Inspired by the notorious case of Christine and Léa Papin—French sisters working as maids who murdered their employer’s wife and daughter in 1933—Nico Papatakis’s debut feature was a succès de scandale that was boycotted by Cannes’s selection committee in 1963. A furiously anarchic, expressionistically heightened dissection of class relations, LES ABYSSES unfolds in a country home where domestic servants Michèle and Marie-Louise (played by real-life sisters Francine and Colette Bergé) are cruelly exploited by the family they work for. When their abusive employers push them too far, it provokes a shocking rebellion that doubles as a provocative metaphor for Algerian resistance against French colonialism.
Credits
Crew
DirectorNikos Papatakis
WriterJean Vauthier, Louis Jouvet
CinematographerJean-Michel Boussaguet
ComposerPierre Barbaud
ProducerNikos Papatakis