Film is based on the infamous Papin case which rocked France in 1933. In the town of Le Mans, Monsieur Lancelin, a retired solicitor, lived with his wife and daughter. Seven years earlier, the family had hired two sisters as maids, the elder Christine and younger Lea. Madame Lancelin was strict and would wear white gloves to check for dust and there was surprisingly little personal interaction between the family and maids. One afternoon Monsieur Lancelein came home to pick up his wife and daughter for a dinner engagement and found the door bolted. After awhile police got in through a back window. They found the bodies of Madame Lancelin and her daughter; heads bludgeoned beyond recognition and legs carved like pieces of French bread. Weapons were a pewter jug, hammer and knife. Unique to this case, was the fact that their eyes had been gouged out while they were alive. The maids were found upstairs and confessed. The younger had twice blown out the house fuse and feared reprisal from the mistress of the house. The maids attacked them both when they arrived home; the younger following what the older did. The case became a cause celebre in France as an example of the cultural chasm between employer and servant. The case was also made into a play The Maids by Genet and another film - Murderous Maids. Interesting that all psychiatric testimony about the pair (incest and an extremely dysfunctional background and family) was dismissed by the small town jury but later resulted in such evidence being admitted into French trials.
Review of Sister My Sister
