A current theme running through much of contemporary South American cinema is the distinct class factor of them and us, of those that have and those that have not in a very class conscious continent. Lucretia Martel's haunting 'The Headless Women' and Jorge Michel Grau's satirical horror debut 'We Are What We Are' for example highlight the almost invisible underclass struggling in these growing economies, whilst Silva's The Maid takes a different approach on the same issue, focusing the attention on the repressed figure of Raquel, a live in maid to an upper middle class family in Chile.
Striking as it is to western audiences to note the house servant culture that still dominates in South America, Silva picks up the mantle from Luis Bunuel's Mexican films (Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel for example) and captures the inevitable problems that arise when one is in service of another under the same roof; in this case a live-in maid and the same family she has served, help raise, cook and cleaned for over the past 20 years, how they strive to live together and the crushing psychological affects such an arrangement can entail.
The tone is set from the very first scene beginning with Raquel's birthday for which, at the request of the families children, a muted and awkward surprise party is thrown in her honour. It makes for squirm worthy watching, presents are given, awkwardness abounds (who cleans up after a maid's birthday?) and formalities are still kept in this all too uncomfortable scene. All which makes The Maid sound like some sort of gritty social-realist diatribe about the oppressor and the oppressed which could not be farther from Silva's gentle character study and subtle interplay of hand gestures, muted emotions and repressed feelings. Raquel (wonderfully played by Catalina Saavedra, who incidentally has made a living of playing maids in film and television in her homeland) from the first moment we meet her; eyeballing the audience, in a scene from the film poster above, with a look that conveys her despair, confused and lost, represents a soul squandered and an identity in deep crisis. Her very character is non-defined, she lives to serve the family and her proximity to their lives have stunted her own identity, cringe worthy scene follows another as these boundaries are tested and explored, Raquel in denying herself her true self starts to feel the burden and makes herself ill.
In essence The Maid acts like a psychological thriller, Raquel becomes so obsessed by her standing in the household, seen by the family that employs her as some sort of distant relative that she starts to act out, in turn both needy yet resentful, making enemies with the eldest daughter, losing her temper and fighting everyone on all fronts as her surroundings become all the more confusing and oppressive. Meanwhile her employers, all too confused themselves at this predicament, try to placate the irritated Raquel by tiptoeing around her, naturally this highly strung ordeal brings about her illness and bound to her bed under doctor orders the family decide that the load is too heavy for Raquel and suggest extra help, a situation that sends her into manic overload.
Raquel is a woman missing in action and in Silva's decision to film her on handheld camera, following as she goes about her daily work, allows the audience to share her claustrophobia, to dwindle in the monochrome and beige surroundings, doing the same thing day in, day out. Her fixture in the household, sometimes off frame, as conversations and action happen elsewhere, signify her standing in the family home as she remains awkward and ill at ease, neither taking up space either physically or spiritually. The camera allows us to access the tragic figure and her fits between rage, pettiness and indifference, we watch it all unravel in the daily grind and start to understand those sorrowful facial expressions in all their agonised glory.
In Saavedra's Raquel, Silva feels rest assured in exploring deeper facets of Raquel's character in the film's final third, which as they unravel bridges the gap with the viewer in understanding the hows and whys of Raquel's actions. Her shoulders lose their starch, a smile can be glimpsed and the warmth of Lucy's family, who unlike Raquel still holds on to those strong ties, start to chip away at the faux personality moulded by years of servitude. It's in these moments that Silva's work really packs the punch: family, identity, unity, Raquel has none of these left, abandoned by years of devotion to a pseudo family many miles away from her true roots. Watching Lucy's family in the throes of love, fun and laughter Raquel starts to realise all she has lost. It's what Silva believes his people have lost, what they are currently losing, whilst shackled to a life of servitude an identity has been quashed, slowly ebbed away, not only by the those that serve but to those that are served, in despite, as the case most certainly is in The Maid, of their intentions.
Quite suitably The Maid has won critical acclaim at festivals and with audiences worldwide and is nothing short of a triumph, Silva at the tender age of 30 has a lot to live up to after this subtle, cliche free and carefully handled film that could of so easily fallen into the dogmatic trap of message movie and I for one cannot wait to see what he delivers next. As for Catalania Seevdara, this is one of those performances that make the world sit up and take notice, much like Anamaria Marinca (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days) a couple of years back and I would take it for granted that we will be seeing a lot more of her in the coming years. The Maid is certainly one of my top films of 2010, if such subjective things matter to you, and I advise all those that have placed The Maid on their 'must see' lists (or, heaven forbid, have yet to have added it) to put it at the very top, believe me that is where this little gem belongs.
Great Film. Terrible, terrible trailer. Do not judge by this trailer.....God, this is awful.
