The Maids (French: Les Bonnes) is a 1975 British film directed by Christopher Miles, adapted from Jean Genet’s classic play of the same name. It stars Glenda Jackson as Solange, Susannah York as Claire, Vivien Merchant as Madame, and Mark Burns as Monsieur. Producer Ely Landau made it for the American Film Theatre, which released thirteen stage-to-screen adaptations in the United States from 1973 to 1975. For kink-cinema viewers it is the most widely seen English-language film of Genet’s servant power ritual: two maids, one mistress, sadomasochistic roleplay, and a murder fantasy that never quite completes on schedule.
Plot: Ritual Murder That Always Fails
Solange and Claire are housemaids who build elaborate sadomasochistic ceremonies whenever Madame is out. The focus of their role-play is Madame’s murder; they take turns occupying either side of the power divide—tyrant mistress or abased servant. Deliberate pacing and devotion to detail ensure they always fail to “kill” Madame at the ritual’s climax. Popular belief ties the plot to the 1933 Papin sisters murders; Genet denied a direct one-to-one inspiration, but the cultural echo of servant violence against a bourgeois household still hangs over every staging and this film.
Cast
- Glenda Jackson as Solange
- Susannah York as Claire
- Vivien Merchant as Madame
- Mark Burns as Monsieur
That principal quartet had already played the piece on stage at London’s Greenwich Theatre before the cameras rolled—continuity that keeps the film close to theatrical Genet rather than loose “inspired by” softcore.
Production: Twelve Days, One Tracking Camera
Director Christopher Miles planned a twelve-day shoot with a single camera that could track anywhere over the set, working with cinematographer Douglas Slocombe. They deliberately imported many of Genet’s theatrical devices into the film: often static camera, lush extravagant settings, ceremony over naturalism. The result reads as filmed power theater—costume, insult, and ritual climax—rather than realist crime drama.
Release
The picture screened at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival outside the main competition. Vincent Canby covered the New York opening for The New York Times (review dated 22 April 1975; he notes a 21 April opening), treating it as an “exciting” Genet transfer under the American Film Theater banner.
Why Power-Exchange Viewers Still Cue It Up
Jackson and York embody the circulating top/bottom of Genet’s maids; Merchant’s Madame is the real authority whose absence fuels the game. Related search terms: The Maids 1975 film, Glenda Jackson Genet, American Film Theatre BDSM, sadomasochistic roleplay cinema. Watch it beside the stage history of Les Bonnes if you want service, humiliation, and murder fantasy without dungeon props—only the household as scene space.
