Violette Nozière

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.

It is an atrociously unlawful act depicted in Chabrol's sensational melodrama, the based-on-a- true-story type (a murder case in 1933) which would usually generate a slew of horrific feedback in the social news commentary, about an adolescent girl poisons her parents in order to back up her gold-digger boyfriend to elope together.

What makes the film so gravely provocative is the entire scheme of Violette (Huppert) seems so juvenile and wanton, the viciousness is inexorable and beyond any logical solace. Violette is a lackadaisical, apolitical and promiscuous teenager, although at the age of 24, Huppert is unbecoming to pass for the role, but Chabrol adroitly restyles Violette with a more precocious patina, the dexterous transition between the good girl veneer when she is with her parents and the motel-hogging and man-hunting hussy potently incites Huppert's chameleonic escapade, each and every single frame zooms in on her unprovoked aloofness and obtrusive sex appeal. She is perpetually indulging in her own pathetic realm, sneers at her parents' clumsy intercourse and disgruntled at their ordinary petit bourgeois trivia, she is in an impetuous situation to find an egress, but the man in her dreams is a major disappointment as viewers all being well- informed in advance, it is money he is on the lookout for. The affair is doomed to futility, in some sense Violette knows it fairly well, but it is the defects (the egocentric selfishness, deep- rooted misanthrope and diabolic cruelty) in her character blind her sight, poison her mind and abet her into carrying on the abhorrent action.

After the murder plan goes as expected and the lousy gas-accident cover-up, Germaine, the mother (Audran) survives the poison, it is not a detective story after all, instead, it is an awkward moment of facing the truth, but Violette's vituperative accusation to her late father (Carmet) in order to justify her motive shatters all the expectation if there is any mercifulness left in her, she is an archetype of the malevolent side of human nature, an anomaly which defies all the logical interpretation, she and Dr. Hannibal Lecter can be an adorable couple!

Stéphane Audran, whom I just appraised for her delicate performance in BABETTE'S FEAST (1987, 8/10), is astounding here as the overbearing but doting mother of Violette, she is the one we can mostly project our compassion on, yet, we might also prompt to question her tutelage, perhaps she is at least partially responsible for the decadence of her sole daughter, how Violette's double act (constantly stays in motels and hangs out someone the parents have never met) can blatantly evade a mother's instinctive nature is a shade bemusing, not to mention the intaking of unknown medicine for the sake of hereditary syphilis, at least verify with the doctor first (and in this case, both parents are too unmindful)!

New to the canon of Claude Chabrol, the pick of VIOLETTE may not be the optimum starter, the disrupted narrative never fully register any excitement barring a bitter aftertaste and shocking values of the subject matter, its foremost merit is to grant Huppert a stage to unleash her glacial pulchritude, which one can appreciate from every unyielding close-up on her, and comfortingly augurs an eminent career for her as crème de la crème of the French cinema, her screen magnetism is inherent.

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.

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.

In 1978, when Claude Chabrol made 'Violette Noziere', many people in France remembered very well the criminal case of the woman who gives the film its name. It had been one of the scandalous, passionate, and morbid stories of the interwar period, a story that competed on the front pages of Parisian newspapers in 1933 with the news about Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, and which had divided the French public opinion into two camps, as no another sensational affair had since the Dreyfus case. The heroine of the gloomy story was a 16-year-old girl from a working / mid-class neighborhood, who had poisoned her parents. The father had died but the mother survived. The investigation revealed the double life of a girl suffocated by the environment in which she lived, considered a sinister criminal by some and a victim of social conditions and a perverse family environment by others. However, Chabrol only mentions in passing the media scandal around this case, being rather fascinated by the young woman's personality and also fascinating his spectators in the way he tells the story of the crime and the circumstances that led to its committing.

The whole film revolves around the heroine played by Isabelle Huppert. The script is quite faithful to the story, presents the facts as reported by the press of the time and does not try to serve surprises or insert speculative interpretations about the reasons for the actions and the psychological sources of the acts committed by the young woman. The director's attention is focused on reconstructing the confined and devoid of personal separation in which the Noziere family lives, the bohemian environment in which the young high school girl spends her time in the company of students, crooks, and old bourgeois who take advantage of the youth of girls in need for money or sensations. Rejecting both moral judgments and psychoanalytic interpretations, Chabrol lets Isabelle Huppert build the role of the girl who, instead of teenage dreams, plunges into promiscuity, and who travels from adolescent rebellion to murder with an impassive coldness. We don't find too many reasons in the film that would put us as spectators in the camp of Violette's supporters, except for the personality of the actress who fills the role with gloomy feelings and self-destructive tension.

Isabelle Huppert achieves with the part of Violette in this film one of the first great roles of a fabulous career. She is supported by Stéphane Audran (the director's second wife, whom he would break up after 14 years of marriage and many remarkable films in the same year 1978) and Jean Carmet, one of those talented French actors whom Chabrol was giving the opportunity of consistent parts even if they were not first rank stars. A special award should be given to those who recognize Fabrice Luchini in one of the first roles of his film career. The style of the story is interesting and elaborate, temporally separated frames continue visually one another, flashbacks and imaginary scenes (especially from Violetta's fantasies or nightmares) are interleaved nervously and non-linearly, but perfectly following the logic of the action. 'Violette Noziere' manages to describe the interwar social environment, with social contradictions, moral prejudices, inequalities and stigmas related to the status of women and the pressure of the press of sensation. The film also intents to be a psychological study into the motives of the crime. Here, I think intentionally, the answer is not clear. We are shown the conditions that can generate crime, but not the gates that open between reality and horror. Judgments belong to us, the spectators.