After releasing not one but two feature films last year that had him competing for both a Golden Bear in Berlin and a Golden Leopard in Locarno, prolific Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude would have been forgiven for taking a breather in 2026. Instead, the tireless and tirelessly inventive director managed to one-up himself, not only making his French-language debut but his first appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest, “Diary of a Chambermaid,” premiered in Directors’ Fortnight.
At this point in his staggeringly productive career, Jude could likely pad out an impressive festival sidebar on his own. Romanian devotees of their puckish homegrown hero will have to settle for a double bill instead, with both “Chambermaid” and last year’s vulgar vampire romp “Dracula” playing out of competition at the Transilvania Film Festival, which takes place June 12 – 21.
Described in a title card as a “variation on the novel,” Jude’s film is loosely based on the eponymous book by French author Octave Mirbeau about a chambermaid in 19th-century France who is ruthlessly exploited by a series of employers, gradually losing her innocence until she becomes as corrupt and depraved as them. A scabrous satire of Parisian society that was scandalous in its time, “Diary of a Chambermaid” was previously adapted for the screen by Jean Renoir and Luis Buñuel, and more recently by Benoît Jacquot.
