Story of Women
| Story of Women | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Claude Chabrol |
| Produced by | Marin Karmitz |
| Written by |
Colo Tavernier Claude Chabrol Francis Szpiner (book) |
| Starring |
Isabelle Huppert François Cluzet Nils Tavernier |
| Music by | Matthieu Chabrol. Additional music : La Chanson du maçon, music by Henri Betti |
| Cinematography | Jean Rabier |
| Edited by | Monique Fardoulis |
| Distributed by |
MK2 Diffusion (France) New Yorker Films (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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108 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Story of Women (French: Une affaire de femmes) is a 1988 French drama film directed by Claude Chabrol based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined on July 30, 1943, for having performed 27 abortions in the Cherbourg area, and the book by Francis Szpiner.
The film premiered at the 45th Venice International Film Festival, in which Isabelle Huppert was awarded the prize for best actress. It has been cited as a favorite by filmmaker John Waters, who presented it as his annual selection within the 2008 Maryland Film Festival.
Under the German military administration in occupied France during World War II. Paul Latour is a prisoner of war in Germany and his wife Marie lives hand-to-mouth with their two children in a squalid flat. A neighbour, whose husband is also in Germany, has fallen pregnant and is trying to lose the baby. Marie helps her, successfully. Other women come to her and she starts charging. While talking with Paul one night, she reveals that a fortune teller saw "nothing but good things" in her future, along with a lot of women, which she wouldn't clarify, but alluded to her abortion activities. Marie also confessed to wanting to be a famous singer.
Despite her husbands return, she will not resume relations. She sees him as emasculated, and less than a man. Although he cannot find work, he rents a bigger flat so that the two can have some privacy. Marie not only has more space for her illicit business but lets a prostitute use a room during the day. She also starts a daytime affair with a collaborator.
When one of the abortions goes wrong, the woman dies and her despairing husband commits suicide. Marie shrugs off the tragedy and hires a maid to help, suggesting that part of her duties can be to sleep with Paul. After returning home early and witnessing Marie and her lover asleep together, he sends an anonymous denunciation to the police, alerting them of her illegal activities.
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Wikipedia