jimmydavis-650-769174 As a great admirer of Chabrol's 'Helene cycle' of the late 60's and early 70's I approached this film with some trepidation, having been disappointed by some of his more recent work.However I was pleasantly surprised, the film was nicely scripted and acted, period detail good and the whole felt taut and unsentimental. A previous reviewer seems surprised that Chabrol remains balanced in his views,however Chabrol often refuses to take sides and allows the viewer a freedom (almost unknown in moralising modern films)to make up their own mind. One only has to view the excellent 'Nada' to appreciate this.I thought Isabelle Huppert was better here than in any other role i've seen her, partly because she managed to drop the somewhat smug persona she seems to bring to her roles. (yes i'm not a fan and wish Chabrol would turn his attention elsewhere). She played the central character as both cynical and devious, charmingly naive vindictive and finally empty and self loathing. A real acting masterclass.Much as I enjoyed this film though it left me rather empty at the end, indeed there really was little I cared about, both in terms of character and plot. All the usual questions one feels need answering were absent, the curious unease and ambiguity gone. The Chabrol appeared to be absent from this nevertheless efficient and entertaining Claude Chabrol film.

MARIO GAUCI Though I had owned this on VHS (recorded off French TV), I only opted to check it out now – after acquiring the film in a version accompanied by English subtitles, on the occasion of its director's birthday. While not a typical effort (being a period melodrama and based on fact to boot), in retrospect, it is justly considered among Chabrol's finest.Star Isabelle Huppert (in one of her best performances, playing an essentially unsympathetic if pitiable type) received the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival for her work here. Interestingly, I would 'meet' Chabrol there in 2004 where the winning film that year happened to deal with the exact same subject as STORY OF WOMEN – the controversy regarding the practice of abortion, i.e. Mike Leigh's VERA DRAKE! Co-star Francois Cluzet, who acts pretty much as second-fiddle to Huppert in this case, would eventually come into his own under Chabrol's guidance in the similarly excellent L'ENFER (1994). The film, however, also provides a notable showcase for Marie Trintignant in the role of Huppert's prostitute friend; again, the actress would subsequently be promoted to lead status for the same director's BETTY (1992), which I have just watched and reviewed.STORY OF WOMEN, then, makes for compelling viewing in several different keys: as a character study (Huppert wants to be a singer, refuses to sleep with her ex-P.O.W. husband but then takes a much younger lover, of course offers her services to girls 'in trouble' and ultimately renounces her faith while in prison), as a look at war-torn France (though the Nazis are hardly ever in the foreground, the hardships endured by the locals obviously have a lot to do with how they are 'forced' to behave) and as a critique, in the vein of Costa-Gavras' movies, of the justice system (there is no doubt Huppert was at fault but the punishment meted out, to set an example and uphold the country's moral rectitude to counter the dishonor of occupation, was too extreme). Oddly enough, once the husband exposes her to the authorities for rather selfish reasons to begin with, he basically exits the picture and is never shown feeling any kind of remorse.For the record, Chabrol had already treated a cause célèbre in VIOLETTE NOZIERE (1978; which I will get to soon in my ongoing marathon, since I am actually approaching it in reverse chronological order!) and would do so again in the recent A GIRL CUT IN TWO (2007; that I have already viewed and commented upon).

writers_reign This is the movie that Mike Leigh ripped off in Vera Drake and it's on view again as part of the Isabelle Huppert season at London's National Film Theatre. The overriding impression is the magnificent central performance from Huppert, definitely one of her best and that's saying a lot; one wonders at the folly of asking Imelda Staunton to go up against Huppert; this is something you just don't do unless you happen to be Nathalie Baye, Catherine Frot or Carole Bouquet and even then you make sure your affairs are in order. Chabrol hits almost every target at which he aims and he aims at a lot, the fact that the film is more or less true - based on the story of the last women to face the guillotine in France - is largely academic. In a nice touch for a tale of a woman who treated abortion casually Huppert's own five year old daughter appears as her fictional offspring. The towering central performance is only one strength of a film that is greater than its parts.

pegd-1 With cool detachment and a subtle touch of horror, Claude Chabrol dissects the story of a woman who was guillotined during the Nazi occupation of France. One of his strengths as a director is that he allows the movie goer to form his/her own thoughts and opinions about the issues at hand. He is not a proselytizer. The film covers a lot of ground: illegal abortion, collaborating with the enemy, parenting, marital communication, greed and a slew of other human weaknesses. All of this against the backdrop of an occupied France, a country who witnessed the horrors of WWI and never fully recovered, and whose WWII soul (what is left of it) has been torn apart.Isabelle Huppert does a fine job interpreting Marie LaTour, the woman in question. Marie is not the most sympathetic of characters. In fact, most of the major characters are not "sympathique".(My favorite character is the prostitute Lulu, acted by Marie Trintignant.)All in all a well directed, well structured film about a tragic period in the lives of the French people. But you be the judge.Trivia: "Vera Drake" and "L'Affaire de Femmes" both begin in apartments which have the the same god awful green walls.