Surreal Estate

Surreal Estate is a 1976 French mystery film directed by Argentine filmmaker Eduardo de Gregorio, who is best known for his screenwriting work with Jacques Rivette.

Plot

Surreal Estate tells the story of Eric Sange, an English novelist who, seeking to buy a house in France as an investment, discovers a run-down mansion inhabited by three strange women: Ariane, Agathe, and their ostensible housekeeper, Céleste. Together, these women draw Eric into a gothic mystery that his own novelistic experience tells him is hackneyed, but which he nonetheless finds irresistible.

Cast

Bulle Ogier as Ariane
Marie-France Pisier as Agathe
Corin Redgrave as Eric Sange
Leslie Caron as Céleste
Marylin Jones as the waitress
Pierre Baudry as the bar owner

Reception

Imran Khan of PopMatters says of the film: "Very much a film of its time, it helped to corner a market in French cinema that had seen a tiny flourish of fantasy-themed dramas first initiated by Jacques Rivette’s Céline and [Julie Go Boating], a film that dispensed with logic and chronology for a shattered perspective on cinematic narrative."