A look at pure evil through the guise of fractured innocence...
Added 9/26/2008
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).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Disturbing
Added 6/24/2008
I wasn't sure what "Story of Women" was going to be about. It interested me to know that it takes place in occupied France during WWII. A woman whose husband has been absent due to service for a period of time finds herself struggling to care for her two kids. Her struggle is presented subtlely and impressively. Once that stage is set, she helps a girl friend abort her pregancy and gets something of value in return. For a life in which there are no luxuries, she suddenly finds herself with a very nice gift for her help. This leads to more opportunities in her new found "trade" and a better lifestyle. In the midst of all this hubby shows up. The relationship between her and her spouse was the aspect of the film that dug the deepest. We are left to guess at their relationship before their absence and reunion. It must not have been much. The absence of love or even concern for each other further established the state of mind of this woman. She has our sympathy even though everything she does challenges our sense of morals (at least for many I assume it would). This works well as the movie nears its' climax. In the end we sense her as I presume the director would want us to; a victim of everyone including herself. That is what I took from "Story of Women". I was left pondering what to make of this person after seeing her through so many different shades of gray. The director, Claude Chabrol, deserves a lot of credit for walking a tightrope of judgement in which he balances back and forth between good and evil, victim and perpetrator. Indeed, our "heroine" is like just about everyone in the film; imperfect. The empathy that emerges from "Story of Women" is not an empathy or anger or injustice; it's an empathy of sadness and disappointment. In seeing how others go wrong, there is instruction on how the rest of us can steer in a different direction. That is the main reason I would recommend this movie to others.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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The 'Story' of Marie-Louise Giraud.
Added 6/15/2008
Based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud (the last woman to be executed in France by guillotine), nouvelle vague director Claude Chabrol's 1988 French drama, Story of Women (Une affaire de femmes), tells the compelling story of Marie Latour (Isabelle Huppert), an abortionist in World War II France. Huppert and Chabrol also combined their talents in La Ceremonie, Comedy of Power, Merci Pour le Chocolat, and Madame Bovary. Marie is a poor, working-class housewife with two children in Nazi-occupied France, who aspires to be a singer. When her neighbor Ginette (Marie Bunel) discovers she is pregnant, Marie performs an amateur abortion and is compensated with the gift of a record player. After returning from the war, Marie's shell-shocked husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) attempts to coerce Marie into conforming to his notion of a housewife. Marie resists, and turns her attention to her prostitute friend, Lulu (Marie Trintignant), and to the business of abortion. To feed her poor family, she knows there is money to be made in illegal abortions. Whether they are housewives or prostitutes, she doesn't judge her clients. Eventually she is arrested and convicted as an enemy of the state. In confronting the subject of abortion and portraying Marie as a victim of her corrupt society, Chabrol's poignant film travels the same emotional depths of last year's critically acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile). Isabelle Huppert's performance is mesmerizing. She is perfect in the role of Marie Latour.
G. Merritt
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Amorality in Nazi-occupied France
Added 3/7/2006
Set in France during the Nazi occupation in WW II, this is a multi-layered "study" of a poor, uneducated woman (played by Isabelle Huppert) who performs abortions on women whose husbands have been sent to Germany. This woman (based on the true-life Marie-Louise Giraud) has many sides to her character: greedy, selfish, basically amoral, a man-hater (she despises her husband and mistreats her son while doting on her daughter); yet is she any worse than the Nazi regime all around her that kills wantonly? Her weak husband (Francois Cluzet) eventually turns her in to the authorities; she is tried and guillotined. The movie is particularly disturbing because just about everyone in it is up to no good; the men especially are all weak and rotten (perhaps done on purpose to foster more sympathy for Huppert). Her blasphemous outbreak at the end just before being executed seems a bit out of character to me. Huppert's performance is powerful and overcomes some of the weaknesses in the storyline.
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Goes to places that Vera Drake leaves untouched
Added 11/11/2005
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.
6 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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A look at pure evil through the guise of fractured innocence...
Added 9/26/2008
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).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Disturbing
Added 6/24/2008
I wasn't sure what "Story of Women" was going to be about. It interested me to know that it takes place in occupied France during WWII. A woman whose husband has been absent due to service for a period of time finds herself struggling to care for her two kids. Her struggle is presented subtlely and impressively. Once that stage is set, she helps a girl friend abort her pregancy and gets something of value in return. For a life in which there are no luxuries, she suddenly finds herself with a very nice gift for her help. This leads to more opportunities in her new found "trade" and a better lifestyle. In the midst of all this hubby shows up. The relationship between her and her spouse was the aspect of the film that dug the deepest. We are left to guess at their relationship before their absence and reunion. It must not have been much. The absence of love or even concern for each other further established the state of mind of this woman. She has our sympathy even though everything she does challenges our sense of morals (at least for many I assume it would). This works well as the movie nears its' climax. In the end we sense her as I presume the director would want us to; a victim of everyone including herself. That is what I took from "Story of Women". I was left pondering what to make of this person after seeing her through so many different shades of gray. The director, Claude Chabrol, deserves a lot of credit for walking a tightrope of judgement in which he balances back and forth between good and evil, victim and perpetrator. Indeed, our "heroine" is like just about everyone in the film; imperfect. The empathy that emerges from "Story of Women" is not an empathy or anger or injustice; it's an empathy of sadness and disappointment. In seeing how others go wrong, there is instruction on how the rest of us can steer in a different direction. That is the main reason I would recommend this movie to others.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
The 'Story' of Marie-Louise Giraud.
Added 6/15/2008
Based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud (the last woman to be executed in France by guillotine), nouvelle vague director Claude Chabrol's 1988 French drama, Story of Women (Une affaire de femmes), tells the compelling story of Marie Latour (Isabelle Huppert), an abortionist in World War II France. Huppert and Chabrol also combined their talents in La Ceremonie, Comedy of Power, Merci Pour le Chocolat, and Madame Bovary. Marie is a poor, working-class housewife with two children in Nazi-occupied France, who aspires to be a singer. When her neighbor Ginette (Marie Bunel) discovers she is pregnant, Marie performs an amateur abortion and is compensated with the gift of a record player. After returning from the war, Marie's shell-shocked husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) attempts to coerce Marie into conforming to his notion of a housewife. Marie resists, and turns her attention to her prostitute friend, Lulu (Marie Trintignant), and to the business of abortion. To feed her poor family, she knows there is money to be made in illegal abortions. Whether they are housewives or prostitutes, she doesn't judge her clients. Eventually she is arrested and convicted as an enemy of the state. In confronting the subject of abortion and portraying Marie as a victim of her corrupt society, Chabrol's poignant film travels the same emotional depths of last year's critically acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile). Isabelle Huppert's performance is mesmerizing. She is perfect in the role of Marie Latour.
G. Merritt
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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