The Diary of a Chambermaid

The combination of slapstick humor with the bleakest of tragedy is jarring, which is, I think, the point. Renoir seems to highlight the falseness of the Hollywood studio setting, keeping the viewer from any sense of realism. Instead, we get an obviously constructed or false world in which its power-players (Madame, the Captain, and Joseph) operate for their own ends, no matter the cost. All three paths lead to death in explicit ways (TB, squirrel, and murder), portraying these powerful figures as ultimately undermining their own interests.