Jean-Claude Carrière on 'The Diary of a Chambermaid' 🎬

To listen to more of Jean-Claude Carrière’s stories, go the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ8mdzVJP5Q&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzAPXfOhrKc9IPWO97IUQp4

French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (1931-2021) worked with many film-makers, most notably Luis Buñuel. He wrote screenplays for films including 'Belle de Jour', 'The Discreet Charms of the Bourgeoisie', 'Tin Drum' and 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. [Listener: Andrzej Wolski; date recorded: 2010]

TRANSCRIPT: So the surrealists felt some kinship, some connection with slapstick and American burlesque. So both of those things linked us together, and then of course, I had read Mirbeau's book and worked on it, and had some idea on how to adapt it. The novel describes several jobs where the chambermaid goes from one family to another. So as to avoid the sketch film, I had thought of fusing together several of those masters or of marrying them, or turning them into one family. I said to Buñuel, that we could merge that character with the other and he had had the same idea. So that brought us together. We spent two hours together; I came back to Paris without having gone to the festival. I took the plane back that afternoon, and eight days later I found out that I had to leave for Spain, and that was to work with Luis. He really took a risk, as he had only seen me for two hours, he couldn't have had any idea if I had any talent at all, and from my point of view it was very impressive to work with someone who was already so established in the film business. He had filmed Veridiana, he had done the Exterminating Angel, he had won the Grand Prize in Cannes, so it was at that time he was 63 and I was 30... 31, so it was fascinating, and at the beginning I was very impressed. He put me at ease right away, he cleverly made me understand how we ought to work. I mean I was in Madrid, we both had flats in a building in Madrid called 'la Torre de Madrid', a skyscraper in Madrid, that is still there.