July 8 - 9, 2019
12:30 2:35 4:45 7:00 9:10
Through Tuesday, July 9
A deluxe Mexico City hotel feels confining for Eve (Gabriela Cartol), a chambermaid whose days are filled with making beds, cleaning bathrooms, and running interference for a panoply of precious guests demanding special attention. A beautifully observed fiction film that feels uncomfortably real, The Chambermaid posits Eve’s disciplined schedule –beginning her day at 4 a.m. and ending it with a class to fulfill a high school diploma – with the guests’ capricious whims. As she yearns for independence within and beyond the confines of the hotel’s luxury walls, her hopes and desires materialize alongside a seething anger sparked by a newly feminist streak. Avilés’s film takes its inspiration from French artist Sophie Calle’s art project, The Hotel, in which she worked as a chambermaid and photographed objects left behind by guests. Minimal and hyper-realistic, the film leaves the viewer with hope that Eve will not herself become mere detritus.
