Surreal Estate

This article is about the 1976 film. For the 2021 TV series, see SurrealEstate.

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

Surreal Estate
Directed by	Eduardo de Gregorio[1]
Written by	Michael Graham Eduardo de Gregorio
Starring	Bulle Ogier Leslie Caron Corin Redgrave Marie-France Pisier
Cinematography	Ricardo Aronovich
Edited by	Alberto Yaccelini
Release date	1976 (1976) (France)
Running time	83 min
Country	France
Languages	English French

Plot

Surreal Estate tells the story of Eric Sange (Corin Redgrave), 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 (Rivette regular Bulle Ogier), Agathe (Marie-France Pisier), and their ostensible housekeeper, Céleste (Leslie Caron). Together, these women draw Eric into a gothic mystery that his own novelistic experience tells him is hackneyed, but which he nonetheless finds irresistible.^[1]

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 (1974), a film that dispensed with logic and chronology for a shattered perspective on cinematic narrative."^[1]