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 "Murderous Maids has a lot going for it, not least the brilliant performances by Testud ... and Parmentier."
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
 "Never inspires more than an interested detachment."
-- Marjorie Baumgarten, AUSTIN CHRONICLE
"Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Murderous Maids is how restrained and sensitive French director Jean-Pierre Denis keeps his film."
-- Jeffrey Bruner, DES MOINES REGISTER
"The weight of the piece, the unerring professionalism of the chilly production, and the fascination embedded in the lurid topic prove recommendation enough."
-- Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL
"A creaky staircase gothic."
-- Laura Clifford, REELING REVIEWS
"Dark and disturbing, yet compelling to watch."
-- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, THEMOVIECHICKS.COM
"Nearly 75 years after the fact, the matter still hasn't given up all its secrets, but Denis' film comes close to a definitive, deeply disturbing account."
-- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"A chilling tale of one of the great crimes of 20th Century France: the murder of two rich women by their servants in 1933."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE
"Highly recommended as an engrossing story about a horrifying historical event and the elements which contributed to it."
-- Jean Lowerison, SAN DIEGO METROPOLITAN
"Spare but quietly effective retelling."
-- Marc Mohan, OREGONIAN
"Denis and co-writer Michele Petin's impeccable screenplay penetrates with a rawness that that is both unflinching and tantalizing. Lead provocatuers Testud and Parmentier give superlative performances"
-- Frank Ochieng, MOVIE EYE
"One wonders if they'll make similarly sympathetic films about O.J. Simpson in 70 years."
-- Jon Popick, PLANET SICK-BOY
"'The film is stark, straightforward and deadly... an unnatural calm that’s occasionally shaken by...blasts of rage, and later, violent jealousy.'"
-- Anita Schmaltz, METRO TIMES
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"Murderous Maids pulls no punches in its depiction of the lives of the Papin sister and the events that led to their notorious rise to infamy..."
-- Robin Clifford, REELING REVIEWS
"An intelligent, moral shocker."
-- Manohla Dargis, L.A. WEEKLY
"The elements were all there but lack of a pyschological center knocks it flat."
-- Thom Fowler, HOLLYWOOD BITCHSLAP
"Ripped of her humanity, Testud's Christine becomes a working stiff of Greek proportions."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE
"...salaciously simplistic."
-- Josh Larsen, SUN PUBLICATIONS (CHICAGO, IL)
"... a story, an old and scary one, about the monsters we make, and the vengeance they take."
-- Philip Martin, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
"With not a lot of help from the screenplay (proficient, but singularly cursory), [Testud] acts with the feral intensity of the young Bette Davis."
-- David Noh, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"The film proves unrelentingly grim -- and equally engrossing."
-- Jean Oppenheimer, NEW TIMES
"A sensitive, moving, brilliantly constructed work."
-- Arthur Salm, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
"Beautifully crafted and cooly unsettling...recreates the atmosphere of the crime expertly."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
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FRESH 100%
Avg. Rating: 7.9/10 |
"Denis forges out of the theories of class- based rage and sisterly obsession a razor-sided tuning fork that rings with cultural, sexual and social discord."
-- John Anderson, NEWSDAY
"Testud is the burning center of a clinically dispassionate film."
-- Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE
"Genuinely unnerving."
-- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE
"As the dominant Christine, Sylvie Testud is icily brilliant."
-- Stephen Hunter, WASHINGTON POST
"The story makes for an absorbing drama that builds in intensity, heading toward the ultimate outburst with a grim sense of inevitability."
-- Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Troubling and powerful."
-- Michael O'Sullivan, WASHINGTON POST
"What [Denis] accomplishes in his chilling, unnerving film is a double portrait of two young women whose lives were as claustrophic, suffocating and chilly as the attics to which they were inevitably consigned."
-- Carrie Rickey, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Ultimately too repellent to fully endear itself to American art house audiences, but it is notable for its stylistic austerity and forcefulness."
-- Frank Scheck, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"It presents the Papin sisters' lives with ferocious clarity, shedding a painful light on emotions too volatile to be named and on actions that ultimately defy explanation."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES
"Murderous Maids may well be the most comprehensive of these films and also strike closest to the truth."
-- Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES
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"Becomes a fascinating study of isolation and frustration that successfully recreates both the physical setting and emotional tensions of the Papin sisters."
-- Ed Scheid, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
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* Who are the Approved Tomatometer Critics?
* Mouse over a tomato icon for a publication's original rating. Original rating not available for every publication.
* In fairness to critics whose last name begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet, certain pages are sorted in reverse order, z-a.
* Certain "Murderous Maids" article data provided by the Movie Review Query Engine.
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lepetitchat78
| If I could be anywhere: "Back in Cuba, sitting Indian style on the Malecon. Mojito in one hand, handsome revolutionary in the other." |
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