Neglected Gems are films we’ve found in Criticker’s database which (a) very few users have seen & (b) have received extremely high marks. Today’s selection definitely fits the bill: Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie. Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire star.

La Cérémonie depicts a seemingly well-worn tale of class conflict, but does so with a rare intelligence and cruelty. Sophie (Bonnaire) is a maid hired on by a wealthy family, and tensions spark up after she begins a friendship with a trouble-making postal clerk (Huppert). Throughout his intensely unconventional film, Charbol manages to keep the suspense high, methodically advancing the plot towards a devastating climax. This was Charbol’s forty-ninth feature and is hailed as one of his best.

The New York Times says La Cérémonie “has a chilling, lethal inevitability from the very start. But the artistry is in Mr. Chabrol’s precise control of his material and in the way an intricate, unnerving bond is seen growing between Sophie and Jeanne … ‘La Ceremonie’ is beautifully and wickedly made.”