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Chambermaid on the Titanic

Director:	Bigas Luna
Writers:	Bigas Luna, Cuca Canals and Jean-Louis Benoît
	Samuel Goldwyn; NR; 96 minutes
Release:	8/98
Cast:	Romane Bohringer, Oliver Martinez, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Didier Bezace and Aldo Maccione
	In French with English subtitles

This is not a rip-off of 1997's record-setting smash Titanic. It's quite the opposite, in fact. Chambermaid is a small film with big intentions that are never fully developed. A poor French foundry worker, Horty (Martinez), wins a trip to England to watch the launch of the Titanic. There's a catch, though: the trip's for one and he must leave his wife, Zoe (Bohringer), behind. Horty shares his room with a pleading chambermaid who claims she has nowhere else to sleep and Horty has an erotic dream that the two enjoyed a night of passion. He awakes to find her gone. Returning home, Horty suspects Zoe slept with his boss and in a fit of jealousy relates his dream to a group of friends as if it were real. His vivid storytelling brings the tale to life, and with each telling it becomes increasingly feverish. A traveling actor (Maccione) brings Horty's story to the stage, with Horty and Zoe as stars. The film is built around lust but is strangely short on passion.