Story of Women [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Claude Chabrol's Une Affaire de Femmes/Story of Women, based on a real-life miscarriage of justice, is a surprisingly even-handed film that steps aside from cheap emotionalism to present the good, the bad and the ugly sides of its abortionist protagonist without resorting to easy judgements a la Mike Leigh and Vera Drake. It's not a cry for or against abortion, merely offering the facts to the viewer to make up their own mind. Huppert's character is amoral in the purest sense of the word: she's not a crusader but a capitalist, doing favors and letting out her spare room to whores not out of principles but because she can make a good living out of it. More than that, she enjoys the role reversal and power it gives her as she becomes the breadwinner, keeping her husband (Francois Cluzet excellent in what could have been a nothing role) out of the way and out of her bed while she openly pursues other men. Only once does she stop to consider the moral consequences, but the moment quickly passes and it's back to business as usual. One side-effect of this is that the film never moves you, rather it engages you, but it manages to do so on many different levels.

It's not really a film about abortion but about sexual inequality and the corrupt patriarchical 'morality' of the Vichy government and the way they visited their own sins upon the population in the name of redeeming the nation's surrender through eliminating 'moral weakness.' But in this case it manages to deal with multiple themes and a more convincing look at human nature - Marie is no idealised heroine, but that still doesn't justify her fate. The fact that Chabrol is surprisingly even handed and refuses to take moral sides only strengthens the film - this is a filmmaker on top of his game and with enough confidence in the material not to feel the need to make special pleading. There are weaknesses to the film, but they pale compared to its strengths, not least his unfussy and visually economic portrait of an occupied nation in denial of both its defeat and its own hypocrisy and weakness. As the film makes chillingly clear, the defeat gave the French the perfect opportunity to take revenge upon themselves.

The Region 1 NTSC DVD includes a good selection of extras - scene-specific commentary by interviews with producer Marin Karmitz and Francis Szpiner and the original French theatrical trailer.

Claude Chabrol's stark and unsentimental masterpiece about the last woman to be executed in France--she was guillotined for performing abortions in Nazi-occupied France during World War II--forces us to see a side of war not often depicted. What does a woman with two little children do when her country is occupied by the brute forces of the enemy? How is she to find enough to eat, to buy the increasingly scarce and costly necessities of life? How is she to find joy in life? Women often turn to prostitution during such times, but Maire Latout does not. Instead she aborts the foetuses of the prostitutes and of other women impregnated, often by the Nazis. In a sense this is her "resistence." However she prospers and takes up with a Nazi collaborator. In the process she reduces her husband to frustration and humiliation.

Isabelle Huppert as Marie Latout is mesmerizing in a role that allows her talent full latitude. She is clear-headed and sly as a business woman, warm and ordinary as a mother, cold and brutal as a wife, childish and careless as an adulteress, resourceful and fearless as an abortionist, and unrepentant as she awaits the executioner (foreshadowed, by the way, by her son, who wants to be an executioner when he grows up). Francois Cluzet plays her husband Paul, and he is also very good, especially at rousing our pity. Chabrol makes it clear that both Marie and Paul are victims, not only of war, but of their divergent natures. Paul wants the love of Marie, but she wants only a man that represents success and power, a man who is clean-shaven, not the menial worker that he is. Marie Trintignant is interesting and convincing as a prostitute who becomes Marie Latout's friend and business associate.

While abortion is indeed "Une affaire de femmes" this film is about much more than that. No doubt the title is there to emphasize Charbrol's point that men really do not (did not then, and do not now) really understand abortion and why it is sometimes a horrible and abject necessity. When Marie is taken to Paris for a show trial she exclaims to a woman in jail with her, referring to the court that will pass judgment on her, "It's all men...how could men understand?" We can see that men really can't, and that precisely is what this movie is all about: showing us just how horrible pregnancy can be under the circumstances of enemy occupation.

A secondary story here, not quite a subplot, is Paul's story. What does a man do when he and his children are dependent on a woman who doesn't love him, a woman who rejects him and even goes so far as to arrange for the cleaning woman to sleep with him? It is not only Marie who humiliates him, but it is the defeat of his country, the easy surrender to the Nazis that has so reduced him. This is made clear in a scene late in the film between two lawyers who voice their shame as Frenchmen in a time of defeat.

What Paul does is not pretty (and I won't reveal it here), but so great is the provocation that one understands his behavior and can forgive him.

Two of the most important performances of the year that was 1988 were Meryl Streep's portrayal of Lindy Chamberlain in `A Cry in the Dark' and Isabelle Huppert's portrayal of Marie Latour in `Une Affaire de Femmes'. Both performances are complete contrasts to one another, yet they are modeled almost entirely the same. Meryl plays the innocent Lindy with such coldness and bitterness that we, as the audience, find ourselves against her; Huppert, on the other hand, plays the morally reprehensible Marie with such childlike naivety that we, as the audience, find ourselves supporting her. Both performances are quite possibly career bests for the two actresses involved and both performances challenge the audience to decide what is morally right in either case.

In `Une Affaire de Femmes' we are told the true story of Marie Latour, a bitter housewife living in poverty in France during World War II. She's seen her friends taken captive by the Nazis and she's seen her family torn apart by war. Her husband is still fighting and she is struggling to get by, raising her two small children. When a close friend winds up pregnant Marie offers to perform the abortion, and for her services she is rewarded with a record player. This small reward motivates Marie to pursue a life of crime so-to-speak, as she offers her services to woman after woman. Marie begins to feel comfortable with her newfound cash flow and her ability to provide for her family, but her comfort begins to ware at her conscience to the point where her morality is all but dissolved and her actions become more and more reprehensible.

Before I had seen this movie I had read a review of the film in which the character of Marie Latour was called out as being one of the most evil persons of all time. The most amazing thing about Huppert's transformation is that you don't see that while you watch her. You see this poor soul ravaged by her lot in life struggling to make it better and when she tastes something she feels is better she grabs a hold of it like a child does a piece of candy or a new toy. What we don't see is the fact that this woman allowed her soul to be darkened and her actions proved her nothing more than a selfish and careless woman who wanted for herself and no one else. She left her children alone to pursue relations with men other than her husband. She brought these men home in the company of her children. She murdered countless innocent lives. She disrespected her husband and cast him aside as if he were a burden. She lived a rather heartless and reproachful life yet Huppert's superb portrayal allows us to sympathize with this monster.

That is good acting.

The film is really a moral paradox thanks to Huppert's performance. We are forced to take a side, or see both sides, and that is a hard thing to do, especially when approaching this subject. I don't think that the film is truly as effective as last years brilliant `4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zile' (`4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days') for it didn't leave me truly sympathizing with the offenders as that film did. It also doesn't really give the characters a sense of true remorse, which is what made last years phenomenon so hauntingly effective. In the final frames of `4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zile' we are given a glimpse at true regret, whereas with `Une Affaire de Femmes' we are left with Marie's halfhearted attempt at redemption. This is where Huppert's performance really pays off for we see all the layers of faux innocence come crashing down as she attempts to persuade us to believe she meant no harm.

As a film I don't think it works as well as it could have, but Huppert is definitely one of the greatest actresses working today, and her performance is spellbinding. This is a very good film (just short of great) that should be seen by everyone, even if it is difficult to take at times (`4 Luni, 3 Saptamani si 2 Zile' was much harsher in my opinion).

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