I would watch Glenda Jackson on the stage reading a finance report aloud while flipping pancakes, and having seen her live on Broadway in "King Lear", would cherish the opportunity to see her again. I've also seen an Off Broadway revival of this Genet play, while it is a very intense example of classic theater, is not one of my favorites. However, the movie, with Glenda Jackson and Susannah York as the maids making fun of their employers while mistress Vivien Merchant is out, is fascinating even though the mainly single setting (Merchant's bedroom) makes the film quite cumbersome at times.
The very grand Merchant makes her entrance three quarters into the movie, her character not realizing how much Jackson and York hate her and would love to murder her. She's not a hateful woman, just a very vain and silly one, having been involved in affair because her husband has been arrested. Jackson and York take care of those imitating her with York in one of her dresses in the opening scenes, and for a little while, believing she's the employer. But soon, their playful antics take a very dark turn, and they begin to relate how they hate themselves and each other for being forced to be in servitude to someone so ridiculous. Jackson's booming voice is certainly more commanding than York's, but that makes York the more subtle of the two although I never can take my eyes off of Jackson. A worthwhile motion picture for American Film Theater to have done because otherwise, it may have never been filmed, but for many audiences even huge fans of Jackson's, it will be a chore to get through.
The very grand Merchant makes her entrance three quarters into the movie, her character not realizing how much Jackson and York hate her and would love to murder her. She's not a hateful woman, just a very vain and silly one, having been involved in affair because her husband has been arrested. Jackson and York take care of those imitating her with York in one of her dresses in the opening scenes, and for a little while, believing she's the employer. But soon, their playful antics take a very dark turn, and they begin to relate how they hate themselves and each other for being forced to be in servitude to someone so ridiculous. Jackson's booming voice is certainly more commanding than York's, but that makes York the more subtle of the two although I never can take my eyes off of Jackson. A worthwhile motion picture for American Film Theater to have done because otherwise, it may have never been filmed, but for many audiences even huge fans of Jackson's, it will be a chore to get through.