In this sumptuous drama set in late 19th-century France, Léa Seydoux (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR) stars as Célestine, a resentful young chambermaid who takes a position in a bourgeoisie home in Normandy.

She immediately chafes against the cruelty and perversions of her upper class employers, including the humiliating rules of her mistress (Clotilde Mollet). As she rebuffs the groping advances of Monsieur (Hervé Pierre), Célestine develops a fascination with the brooding, anti-Semitic gardener Joseph (Vincent Lindon).

A striking new adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s scandalous 1900 novel, Benoît Jacquot has one eye on contemporary France: the sense of social stiflement, Célestine’s humiliating submission to Madame’s onerous terms of employment. But in keeping with the turn-of-the-century rise of Freudian ideas, Jacquot looks past the characters’ outward behavior to the repression and compulsions that lie behind.