SummaryIn her feature debut, theater director Lila Avilés turns the monotonous work day of Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid at a high-end Mexico City hotel, into a beautifully observed film of rich detail. Set entirely in this alienating environment, with extended scenes taking place in the guest rooms, hallways, and cleaning facilities, this minima... Read More
Directed By:Lila Avilés
Written By:Lila Avilés, Juan Márquez
The Chambermaid
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
81
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
My Score
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
92% Positive
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
8% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Jun 26, 2019
100
The film’s style is austere — there are few camera movements and no musical score — but its visual wit and emotional sensitivity lift it above the minimalist miserablism that drags down so many well-meaning films about modern workers. After you’ve seen it, the world looks different.
Jun 26, 2019
90
Measured in its pacing but never stagnant, The Chambermaid quietly fleshes out Eve’s subconscious with actions rather than words.
User score
Generally Favorable
64% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
21% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Aug 11, 2019
10
La vida secreta de los empleados "invisibles" de un hotel. Narrado en un tono casi documental sin score musical, sigue la rutina diaria de una camarera y su ocasional interacción con sus compañeros y los huéspedes. Una que no hay que perder de vista, a pesar del ritmo pausado que puede exasperar al espectador sediento de acción.
Nov 7, 2019
9
Wonderful film about a chambermaid at a luxury hotel in Mexico City. Acting is superb. The film is a meditation on life and what we can make of it.
Jun 22, 2019
88
Like the metropolis that sprawls out far below the rooms she cleans, the film quietly pulses with life. And like Eve, we are left hoping she has a larger part to play in that world beyond smoothing blankets and folding toilet paper ends into perfect little triangles.
Jul 24, 2019
80
Cartol gives a very persuasive performance as Eve, whose inner life is always simmering and bubbling under, while she must maintain a facial blankness as cloudless and pristine as the towels and sheets.
Jun 28, 2019
80
Director Lila Avilés has designed her debut feature, The Chambermaid, to give audiences the opposite opportunity, inviting us to step into the shoes of an invisible woman for two hours, and as such, her film is a rare and special thing.
Mar 28, 2019
75
Lila Avilés’s film reserves the possibility of flirtations with disaster to turn into acts of emancipation.
Jul 5, 2019
50
Shot almost entirely within a hotel, the film operates as a low-budget answer to “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s much-lauded film that also centers on the life of a domestic worker.
Dec 28, 2019
8
"There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away..."
-Emily **** If you understand those lines, you will appreciate this thoughtful, gentle look at a young woman's life that has its share of pathos and missed chances and hope and endurance. You'll never look at 'housekeeping' the same.
Jul 11, 2022
6
The Chambermaid 2018 ★★★
Watched Jul 05, 2022 Luis_989’s review published on Letterboxd:
65/100 The Chambermaid encapsulates its main character's experience in a single place that exemplifies her loneliness, her struggle and the grueling routine of a working woman like herself. Does being treated like an invisible being make you one? This is a portrait of the thankless and underpaid job of a chambermaid. Compared at the time to Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, but they couldn't be any more different. The Chambermaid is more focused on her character's experience rather than trying to make any kind of social commentary, after all, even if it did, the script doesn't offer any kind of development for it. How interesting it will be for the viewer to watch the character's mundane tasks will depend very much on each viewer attention span. After all, the character's hope is to advance in her employment, but that's just a hope that fuels another dull day's work.
Production Company:
- Amplitud
- Bambú Audiovisual
- La Panda
Release Date:Jun 26, 2019
Duration:1 h 42 m
Rating:TV-MA
Awards
Ariel Awards, Mexico
• 1 Win & 10 Nominations
Mexican Cinema Journalists
• 7 Nominations
Palm Springs International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
