Sylvie Testud gives such a ferociously controlled performance that the messy murder seems like a necessary release.

| Jun 17, 2013

Constructing this story with sensitive slowness, Denis keeps the sensational aspects surrounding these incestuous lesbian sisters in check, letting a fantastic performance from Testud carry the movie.

| Jun 17, 2013

Unfortunately Denis' detached and indifferent camera never gets inside the story, its characters, or its milieu.

| Jun 17, 2013

The film studies a world of deeply entrenched class divisions and sexual taboos, and then, with a scream in the night, draws the study to a close, leaving its meaning, like that of the case that inspired it, open to interpretation.

| Jun 17, 2013

Julie-Marie Parmentier and Sylvie Testud are eerily convincing as the intense pair of co-dependents in the rigorous but creepy drama Murderous Maids.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2010

The acting is convincingly macabre, with Sylvie Testud giving an absolutely superb delirious performance.

| Original Score: B | Oct 29, 2008

Convincingly played, but some way short of revelatory.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 2, 2004

Good performances and a firm directing hand make this worthwhile despite the distasteful subject matter.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2004

Sylvie Testud is nothing less than ferocious...Even in her stillness, she's compelling.

| Original Score: 3.50/5 | Apr 15, 2004

Its unevenness can be forgiven due to the boldness of dealing with such a taboo topic matter ,and despite all of its problems, this film makes for a fascinating 90 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 72/100 | Mar 2, 2004

Newspaper stories or television coverage on murders far removed from the local scene accomplish as much, and are often as quickly forgotten

| Original Score: C- | Oct 3, 2003

provocative but a bit flat

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 20, 2003

One wonders if they'll make similarly sympathetic films about O.J. Simpson in 70 years.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 21, 2002

Spare but quietly effective retelling.

| Nov 2, 2002

...salaciously simplistic.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 24, 2002

Highly recommended as an engrossing story about a horrifying historical event and the elements which contributed to it.

| Oct 21, 2002

Denis and co-writer Michele Petin's impeccable screenplay penetrates with a rawness that that is both unflinching and tantalizing. Lead provocatuers Testud and Parmentier give superlative performances

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 8, 2002

The dreamy, almost poetic nature is entrancing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 27, 2002

'The film is stark, straightforward and deadly... an unnatural calm that's occasionally shaken by...blasts of rage, and later, violent jealousy.'

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2002