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The Maids is the name of a claustrophobic 1974 film starring Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Vivien Merchant, and Mark Burns. It is based on the play of the same name by Jean Genet and was directed by Christopher Miles.
Before it was filmed by the American Film Theatre, it ran at the Greenwich Theatre, London, with the same principal cast later used for the film version. Genet based his play on the infamous Papin sisters, Lea and Christine, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933.
The story can be read as an absurdist exposition on the intricate power dynamic that exists between unequals. Glenda Jackson and Suzannah York play Solange and Claire, two housemaids who construct elaborate sadomasochistic rituals when Madame (Vivien Merchant) is away. The focus of their Theatre is the murder of Madame and they take turns portraying either side of the power divide. The deliberate pace and devotion to detail guarantees that they always fail to actualize their fantasies by ceremoniously "killing" Madame at the ritual's denouement.
The Maids was filmed by cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, who deliberately implemented many of Genet's theatrical devices for the film. The camera was often static, the settings lush and extravagant. Genet's dialog is spit by Jackson in derisive fury at Madame's insouciance.
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