Lila Aviles’ ‘Totem’ made a big impression on me which is why it will make it to my top films of 2024. I learned that her previous film ‘The Chambermaid’ was mentioned in another interview about Totem. I put that one on my To Be Watched list, and this December film series A Christmas Gift to Myself gave me the perfect opportunity to watch it. Like Totem, the film has no coherent storyline; instead, it is a character study dealing with a turning point in one’s life. Although they are not very outstanding people, their existence is full of intricate instances of bonding.
Eve (Gabriela Cartol) is a young lady employed as a maid in an upmarket hotel situated in Mexico City. She has been told that if she keeps at it, she will be promoted to the more exclusive floors and would get better tips. However, there are moments when Eve or her fellow workers need assistance, and they do their best to fill the gaps for each other. On another occasion, Eve is forced to babysit while the mother of the child takes a quick shower. In the course of thanking her, she continues asking her for support until they end up talking about how hard life is in Argentina where people travel every day.
Eve also enrolls for GED courses which are given early mornings courtesy of union privileges. This way she meets one of her classmates who goes by the name Minitoy. Initially Eve is restrained but later on opens up as the two women go through several episodes where they only rely on themselves. There’s also a window washer that keeps showing up outside the rooms. Eve was working as usual before their relationship developed into more than just an innocent flirtation. But in the long run, things deteriorate; what was strong friendship ceases to exist and pledges are not kept.
In the west, there is a large underclass that serves as the bedrock upon which the rest of us stand with privilege. Most of this exploitation takes place without our knowledge because we don’t see underclass labor in our everyday life. Sometimes it’s as simple as ignoring the chambermaid at a hotel or not meeting an eye to beggar on street or waiter who is serving you food. We have learned to not recognize service work as being human so that the hierarchies of power will keep us unhappy. Among these people, one will find some anti-tipping personalities who never think about fighting for higher wages and therefore tips become voluntary.
Alfonso Cuaron tried to delve into this world in Roma, tracking an indigenous maid in Mexico City during the 1970s. Still, Cuaron uses more melodramatic elements than Aviles does. However, Aviles chose not to reveal time frames specifically. Although it is set in present times no one knows how long it takes for her story to end either. What she aims for is far more akin to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielmann. The Chambermaid isn’t about anything else but monotony and repetition of days. Not every audience member would like this kind of static energy, but it is effective in depicting when and how the interruption destabilizes Eve’s world.
During the entire movie, Aviles has a simple rule; the camera does not leave the hotel. However, she will go back home through mass transit odyssey but we cut to the next day as she goes for her shift at her work like in severance. Eve is known to us solely for her work as a chambermaid in a hotel. We get to know from phone conversations that she has one young child who stays in a poor neighborhood pitilessly. Everything she does is part of pulling herself out of something that feels permanent. There is quiet desperation about Eve’s choices; she tries hard to follow all the rules, which earn her another demerit from supervisors who do not seem to care about her anymore at all.
Villains are none, but there are definitely people who cannot be trusted. One of the guests stays in his room throughout the day watching TV and providing narration for a documentary film. He doesn’t give Eve the time of day. There is a glimpse of her boss’s back, who rarely looks up from her desk and answers all Eve’s questions with brief non-committal responses. While Eve is clearly not interested, this lady attendant keeps selling plastic food containers on the side. Also, that Argentina mother implants ideas about a future escape to no-man’s-land in Eve’s mind.
In the end, The Chambermaid is mainly about the thoughts that Eve has within herself. The movie is about what she enjoys, fears and desires for. In Akerman’s view of humanity, it was the same act of humanization as diving into her mother’s life which appeared to be ordinary at first sight. She wants to know why the Lost & Found still keeps those red dresses. Several people remind her that Eve is in prime position on the list until she manages to retrieve it. However, when our main character holds it, everything changes; a mere twenty-four hours ago this talisman seemed so powerful but now there are no more shining stones left on it.
It ends up with Totem in the same way as sudden realization. The music score in that film turns into a nightmarish one when little girl comprehends what exactly implies this birthday celebration. In The Chambermaid I felt something more positive than that depicted here. “I think she realized something about where she had been staying all along,” (175) said Eve finally after leaving a lodging-house and entering an unknown future with a baby inside her stomach. The world isn’t safe anymore just like before which consequently means she will probably be let down again just like during her stay at the hotel.
However, she has to attempt and see, which is where her power lies. Eve knows that she is the only person who can truly shape her future and will strive for a greater thing.
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