Violette Nozière

It's pre-WWII France. Violette Nozière (Isabelle Huppert) is the only child living with her parents. She's a wild child. Her mother is angry when her doctor tells them that she has syphilis. She is able to convince that she got the VD from them. Meanwhile she falls for a stylish young man. She prostitutes herself and steals from her parents to give to him. She gives her parents fake medicine and then poisons them. In her trial, she claims her father molested her.

This is is a good movie except one thing kept bothering me. Isabelle Huppert looks too old. The story is based on a real girl who poisoned her parents at the age of 18. I never saw Violette as a teen. In fact, Isabelle Huppert looks 30 in her hooker makeup. I couldn't figure out why a 30 year old is living with her parents and acting like a kid hiding her makeup. I wondered if it's matter of the era she's living in. It's an easy fix if the movie lay out her age in an obvious way. She could have a birthday party. It throws the whole dynamic of the story and the family into confusion. The story really requires a younger actress to play this role. Otherwise, I like the performances but the age difference is really problematic.

This was Claude Chabrol's 15th film that I saw and was a bit disappointed. The film is reasonable, has merits, good interpretations, but for a real shocking story that happened in 1933, I expected more from the film, the way it is told the story and empathy with the motivations of the characters, which never happens. Ten years later, in 1988, again with Isabelle Huppert, Chabrol made a film that has some similarities with this, I speak of "une affaire de femmes", which is undoubtedly a superior film.

Paris in the early 1930s: Fourteen-year-old girl Violette has relationships with various men and is disenchanted with her parents, who show no compassion for the girl's problems. How can they be solved? Not one of director Chabrol strongest works, film is buoyed by exceptional camerawork (Jean Rabier) and an appropriately melancholy performance by Huppert as the young girl. Interesting mainly for Chabrol enthusiasts, others beware of the complicated narrative structure. Most reviews reveal too much of the plot! From a novel by Jean-Marie Fitère, which is based on a true case.

Generally considered Chabrol's return to form after a period of barren inspiration ,including his worst ever ("Folies Bourgeoises").It was probably her best since "les Noces Rouges" (1973) .Like it,it was based on a true story, but an old one ,for the story takes place in 1933.Violette Nozières (the first of a long series of lead parts for Isabelle Huppert in Chabrol's canon) ,predating the director's "Madame Bovary" ,tries to shun her petty milieu ,falls for a gigolo (Jean Dabin! the heroine mistakes it first for the actor Gabin),and tries to poison her parents (she has mitigating circumstances ,for her father desires her ).Stephane Audran and Jean Carmet provide good support as the folks.

In the streets ,the buskers sang the horrible story of the infamous Violette Nozière.

Being one of two among Chabrol's own personal favorites (the other is LES BONNES FEMMES [1960]), I reserved its viewing on the director's 80th birthday. However, while certainly beautifully made and acted, I found myself not sharing Chabrol's enthusiasm for the film (though I did not go so far as to slap a measly ** to it as Leonard Maltin did!). In fact, it is also inferior to the later STORY OF WOMEN (1988) – which this fairly resembles (being similarly based on a factual cause celebre), particularly in its latter stages.

Incidentally, the film seems to have been made as part of a two-picture deal (along with BLOOD RELATIVES [1978]) between France and Canada. Anyway, it led 23-year old Isabelle Huppert (though the character she plays is actually only supposed to be either 14 or 18, depending on the sources!), an award winner at Cannes, towards acquiring the well-deserved status of her country's premiere actress she retains to this day.

Chabrol tackled melodrama only occasionally and seldom with success: on the one side, we can cite THE BREACH (1970) and the afore-mentioned STORY OF WOMEN (also with Huppert) and, among those that did not work out quite as well as had been anticipated, one can name – alongside the film under review – the somewhat unnecessary adaptation of MADAME BOVARY (1991; in which Huppert had the title role yet again). The problem here lies with the story itself (to escape her stifling petit bourgeois existence, a girl – whose promiscuity had already given her syphilis – poisons both her parents), which is simply not all that interesting…and, stretched to slightly over two hours, the effect rings even more hollow!

Still, to redress the balance, the film is imbued with the director's customary exactitude of period detail (it is set in the 1930s) and characterization (even if the protagonist hardly arouses our sympathy throughout, especially when accusing her late father of incestuous conduct to justify her own actions!) – but also unusually featuring a handful of quirky interpolated flashbacks. The strong supporting cast includes such Chabrol fixtures as Stephane Audran (at 45, heading definitely towards middle-aged roles though here she is still able to express her sexuality), Jean Carmet (by far his largest role for this director), Mario David and Bernadette Lafont (appearing towards the end as Violette's cellmate), as well as Francois Maistre (a Luis Bunuel regular) and Fabrice Luchini.