new wave films
The Chambermaid (DVD/Online)
A film by Lila Avilés
Synopsis
Eve is a conscientious hotel chambermaid. Punctual and enterprising, paying close attention to the details, she hopes her impeccable professionalism will bring her promotion to the Hotel Presidente’s exclusive penthouse floor. Long, laborious shifts prevent Eve from caring for her child while she helps guests with their own children. Avilés records her day-to-day activities, from the detail of ensuring rooms are immaculately presented each morning to enrolling in the hotel’s adult education programme, which will help her chances of promotion. When things don’t result as planned, Eve transforms her lonely explorations and newfound courage into the necessary strength to face a life outside the glimmering tower.
Avilés’ impressive debut profits from a spare script and nuanced direction, while Gabriela Cartol’s breakout performance brings charisma and warmth to Eve. With its dry humour and sly observations about class, privilege and exploitation, The Chambermaid is a confident, compelling and deeply resonant piece of filmmaking.
World Premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2018 – Discovery
European Premiere San Sebastian International Film festival 2018 - New Directors Competition
Mexico's International Film Oscar entry
Winner Marrakech International Film Festival - Prix du Jury
Winner Palm Springs International Film Festival - Cine Latino Award
Winner Portland International Film festival - Audience Award
Length 102 min
Original language Spanish
Where It's On
DVD available from:
Amazon
Rent or download from:
Amazon
Apple TV
YouTube
Rent from:New Wave Films Vimeo
Trailer
Director — Lila Avilés
Filmography
2018 THE CHAMBERMAID (La Camarista)
2017 NENA (documentary)
2016 DEJAVU (short)
Cast & Credits
| CAST | |
| Eve | Gabriela Cartol |
| Minitoy | Teresa Sánchez |
| CREW | |
| Director | Lila Avilés |
| Producers | Limerencia (Lila Avilés & Tatiana Graullera) |
| FROPOCINE México | |
| Bad Boy Billy Production (Axel Shalson) | |
| L A Panda Productions (Jana Diaz-Juhl & Pau Brunet) | |
| Bambú Audiovisual | |
| Scriptwriters | Lila Avilés and Juan Carlos Marquéz |
| Cinematography | Carlos Rossini |
| Editor | Omar Guzmán |
| Sound Design | Guido Berenblum |
| Production design | Vika Fleita |
| Mexico 2018 | |
| 98 mins - HD - 1:2.35 - 5.1 | |
| Spanish with English subtitles |
Images
Click any still to enlarge
The Critics
★★★★★
'This quiet profile of Mexico's working class is close to perfect.'
Tim Robey, The Daily Telegraph
★★★★★
The Chambermaid is every bit as “cinematic” as any Fast & Furious flick. No trace of the literary or theatrical remains in Avilés’s long takes and snatched, blank dialogue. The picture wraps a whole world around us. A perfect, cinematic sketch of a working life’
Donald Clarke, The Irish Times
★★★★
Film of the Week -' Lila Avilés is the Mexican actor-turned-director who makes a terrifically assured feature debut with The Chambermaid: an eerily atmospheric, poignant, disquieting movie about 21st-century luxury and the invisible servant class required to maintain it. It is a film to put alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, in that it’s about the emotional cost of submission.'
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
★★★★ 'She doesn’t rescue anyone and she isn’t rescued. How refreshing....wry, delicately austere debut.'
Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Standard
Film of the Week - ‘Debut director Lila Avilés and lead actress Gabriela Cartol have crafted a subtle and compelling story about a young hotel worker, with wry humour and a keen understanding of exploitative labour economics. Lucrecia Martel’s regular sound designer Guido Berenblum creates a sonic poetry to accompany the visuals. Cartol is hugely impressive as the enterprising and unassuming Eve, with her keen smile and calm demeanour.’
Maria Delgado, Sight & Sound
'Maid in Mexico - ‘Bored of brain-dead summer blockbusters yet? Of course you are. So why not skip the multiplex, hit the art house and watch The Chambermaid, the critically adored latest from frighteningly talented young Mexican director Lila Avilés?
ES Magazine
★★★★
‘A poignant portrait of a have not, sensitively played by Cartol as a woman slowly sinking into non-existence.’ Ian Freer,
EMPIRE magazine
★★★★
‘Offering more questions than answers…but strong world-building and beautifully drawn characters’
Owen Richards,The i
‘A cool, calm and collected film about a subject often spoken about loudly and angrily.’ A young hotel maid is the captivating subject of Mexican filmmaker Lila Avilés’ bone-dry social satire.’
LITTLE WHITE LIES
★★★★
'Due to the mesmerising ways of Eve –its gentle and meticulous approach in shooting the daily drudge makes it a weirdly relaxing and fulfilling cinema experience'
Dan Carrier, Camen New Journal
Mark KERMODE BBC SOUNDS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0006v91
The Chambermaid is a great analogy for modern Mexican and Latin American society – showcasing the severe disparity between the leisurely lifestyles of the affluent guests and the poor staff working ungodly hours to support and provide basic necessities for their families.
Rocio Cadena, SOUNDS & COLOURS
Read Interview with Lila Aviles
Aurelie Knecht, SOUNDS & COLOURS
'Lila Avilés’s modest and miraculous first feature finds pathos and a hint of magic in the routines of a young hotel worker.'
...Quietly stunning...it is a work of closely observed workplace realism, but at times it achieves the strangeness and intensity of science fiction.' Even when nothing much is happening, there is the lurking sense that anything might.'
"The Chambermaid brims with empathy and life."
Robert Abele, The Los Angeles Times
“A beautifully observed film of rich detail...The Chambermaid salutes the invisible women caretakers who are the hardworking backbone of society.”
“Minimalist yet sumptuous”
Kate Erbland, IndieWire
‘Gives Powerful Voice to Invisible Laborers.’‘Actress Gabriela Cartol and first-time director Lila Avilés bring a hotel maid’s dreams and ambitions to vivid life.’
'Marvellously honest… sympathetically achieved.’ The Wrap
'Avilés refuses to present us with an upward trajectory, to allow Eve to break from the hermetic, albeit multiple, worlds of the hotel. In doing so, The Chambermaid exposes not only the often-occluded labour of the hotel chambermaid, but also the restricted field of agency and the precarious alignments these conditions of labour can produce.'
Hannah Paveck, Another Gaze
'Slow, steady, and with an exacting eye for detail, Lila Aviles' The Chambermaid is a painfully astute observational drama...'
Monica Castello, Rogerebert.com
“A fascinating observational drama and occasional allegory for the haves and have-nots.”
“Nuanced and natural, it has a quiet and modest power…A character study free of pretense.”
John Fink, The Film Stage
“Coolly unsentimental to the point of being glacial, but possessed of a deadpan wit and downplayed humanistic warmth of its own.”
Jonathan Romney, Screen InternationalLinks
Trailer on YouTube - link or embed
Download poster image textless
Download shorter trailer mp4 file
International Pressbook
Bookings & Press
For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.