{ "id": "ep4fkn8z9t", "slug": "story-of-women", "title": "Story of Women", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s", "label": "Drama films 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1986-1989", "label": "Released 1986 to 1989", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1986-1989" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s", "label": "Drama films 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Story of Women (Une affaire de femmes) is Claude Chabrol's 1988 French drama starring Isabelle Huppert as an abortionist in Vichy France, based on Francis Szpiner's book about Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined in 1943; Huppert won the 1988 Venice Volpi Cup.", "snippet": "Story of Women (Une affaire de femmes) is Claude Chabrol's 1988 French drama starring Isabelle Huppert as an abortionist in Vichy France, based on Francis Szpiner's book about Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined in 1943; Huppert won the 1988 Venice Volpi Cup.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1980s.yr-1986-1989", "markdown": "# Story of Women\n\n**Story of Women** (French: *Une affaire de femmes*) is a 1988 French drama directed by Claude Chabrol, starring [Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert) as Marie Latour, a working-class mother in Nazi-occupied France who becomes a clandestine abortionist and is ultimately executed under Vichy law[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes). The film is based on the book of the same name by the lawyer Francis Szpiner, which dramatized the real case of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined in 1943 for performing illegal abortions[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458) • [3](https://sightlines.media/film/41975/story-of-women-1988). Huppert won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1988 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival) for the role[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096336/awards/).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / year | *Une affaire de femmes*, France, 1988[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes) |\n| Director and writers | Directed by Claude Chabrol; screenplay by Chabrol and Colo Tavernier, from Francis Szpiner's book[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458) |\n| Lead cast | Isabelle Huppert (Marie Latour), François Cluzet (Paul), Marie Trintignant (Lulu), Nils Tavernier (Lucien)[5](https://cinegraph.org/movies/story-of-women-1988) |\n| Historical basis | The case of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined on 30 July 1943 under Vichy legislation that made abortion a capital crime[6](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/opendata/RAPPANR5L17B2244.html) |\n| Principal award | Volpi Cup for Best Actress, Venice 1988, shared ex aequo with Shirley MacLaine for *Madame Sousatzka*[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096336/awards/) • [7](https://www.labiennale.org/en/history-venice-film-festival) |\n| French release | 14 September 1988; CNC visa no. 67782 dated 27 September 1988[8](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=67782) |\n| Restoration | Restored in 4K by Éclair Classics for MK2, with CNC support; re-released in cinemas 29 September 2021[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nDuring the Occupation, Marie Latour raises her two children in hardship while her husband Paul is a prisoner in Germany. She helps a neighbor end an unwanted pregnancy, and the practice grows: with husbands away as prisoners, love affairs, and liaisons with the occupier, demand is steady, and Marie's services become paid and then her livelihood[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes). She rents a room to her prostitute friend Lulu as a further source of income and takes a younger lover, Lucien[5](https://cinegraph.org/movies/story-of-women-1988) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-26-ca-915-story.html).\n\nPaul returns from captivity embittered and weakened, a contrast to the material comfort Marie has built, and she dreams of another life[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes). [Vichy France](https://www.edgepedia.org/vichy-france), the film's synopsis notes, does not tolerate individual happiness unfolding outside official morality; in June 1943 Marie the abortionist is sentenced to death by criminal court[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes) • [10](https://mk2films.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/11/mk2-films-international.pdf).\n\n## Production\n\nChabrol wrote the screenplay with Colo Tavernier, his then wife, adapting Szpiner's 1986 book[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458) • [11](https://www.grandacademicportal.education/assets/images/documents/20180417220021.pdf). Jean Rabier was the cinematographer, Matthieu Chabrol composed the score, and the production companies were La Sept, Les Films du Camélia, MK2 Productions, and Molecule S.A. / Films A2[2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458). Huppert said the shoot took eight weeks and that Chabrol worked so fast his footage hardly needed editing; she had concerns about playing an abortionist, and Chabrol told her the character could just as easily have been a plumber[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-03-ca-313-story.html).\n\nChabrol described his visual approach in a remark quoted by the film's distributor: \"Côté mise en scène, je me suis amusé à faire un film de 1943 et non un film sur 1943,\" adding that filmmakers of the period had not yet seen *Citizen Kane* and did not know deep focus, which he played on[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes).\n\n## Historical basis and the Vichy context\n\nThe film's source case sits inside a specific legal history. Abortion had been criminalized in France at least since an edict of 1556, and under article 317 of the penal code it was a crime judged by a court of assizes[13](https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/evenements/2015/anniversaire-loi-veil/la-marche-vers-la-loi/la-repression). Under Vichy, repression intensified: the law of 15 February 1942 made abortion a crime against the security of the state, subject to special courts and punishable by death[13](https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/evenements/2015/anniversaire-loi-veil/la-marche-vers-la-loi/la-repression) • [14](https://tesi.luiss.it/30222/1/088992_DUALE_ESTHER.pdf). A law of 14 September 1941 had already barred mitigating circumstances and suspended sentences in abortion cases[15](https://histoire-sociale.cnrs.fr/la-repression-de-lavortement-1939-1945/).\n\nMarie-Louise Giraud was guillotined on 30 July 1943 on the basis of this Vichy legislation, which treated abortion as a crime against the state punishable by death[6](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/opendata/RAPPANR5L17B2244.html). One retrospective account states she had performed 27 illegal abortions in the Cherbourg region[16](https://www.lemagducine.fr/retrospectives/une-affaire-de-femmes-claude-chabrol-critique-retrospective-10039268/); sources describe her as one of the last women guillotined in France[3](https://sightlines.media/film/41975/story-of-women-1988). The natalist context mattered: Vichy increased penalties against abortion, making it a capital offense and a crime against the [French people](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-people), and made adultery by the wives of prisoners of war a crime[17](https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/61493/2/02whole.pdf).\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt the 45th Venice International Film Festival in 1988, Huppert won the Volpi Cup for Best Female Interpretation, ex aequo with [Shirley MacLaine](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-maclaine) for *Madame Sousatzka*, and Chabrol received a Filmcritica \"Bastone Bianco\" Special Mention while being nominated for the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion)[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096336/awards/) • [7](https://www.labiennale.org/en/history-venice-film-festival) • [2](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458). *Le Monde*'s review from the festival called it \"un grand film\" and praised Huppert's identification with the character[18](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/09/04/une-affaire-de-femmes-au-festival-de-venise-un-grand-chabrol_4088157_1819218.html).\n\nIn the 1989 to 1990 awards season the film was named Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (tied with *[Distant Voices, Still Lives](https://www.edgepedia.org/distant-voices-still-lives)*), the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review), and the Boston Society of Film Critics, and it was nominated for the 1990 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096336/awards/). At the 1989 [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) it received three nominations: Best Actress (Huppert), Best Supporting Actress (Trintignant), and Best Director (Chabrol)[19](https://www.academie-cinema.org/films/une-affaire-de-femmes/-28209/). On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 85% Tomatometer from 13 reviews[20](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/story_of_women).\n\nCritics emphasized the film's refusal to judge. Roger Ebert called it \"a morality play without a conclusion\" in which Chabrol does not make it easy for the audience to assign virtue or blame[21](https://mubi.com/en/films/story-of-women/critics-reviews). The *Washington Post*'s Desson Howe wrote that it is \"an unflinching treatment of a volatile issue\" that refuses to simplify[22](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/03/ever-rending-story-of-women/c8b3e5fd-7b75-4cbf-a764-8fe545938129/), and the *Los Angeles Times* described it as the culmination of Chabrol's three-decade obsession with bourgeois hypocrisy[9](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-26-ca-915-story.html).\n\nThe film's subject also drew hostility in France. According to a *Le Monde* report of 1 November 1988, a bomb had gone off on 8 October at a [Montparnasse](https://www.edgepedia.org/montparnasse) cinema during a screening of *Une affaire de femmes*, causing the death of a spectator with a heart condition; the film had been targeted by integrist groups[23](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/11/01/l-association-integriste-centre-charlier-se-defend-d-etre-a-l-origine-de-l-attentat_4121990_1819218.html).\n\n## Later circulation\n\nThe film entered the canonical list *[1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die](https://www.edgepedia.org/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die)*[5](https://cinegraph.org/movies/story-of-women-1988). A 4K restoration by the laboratory Éclair Classics for MK2, made with CNC support, returned it to French cinemas on 29 September 2021[1](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes), and it streams on the Criterion Channel in the United States[24](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/story-of-women). Huppert, discussing her seven or eight films with Chabrol in later interviews, recalled that he never gave her direction on set and left her completely free[25](https://mubi.com/de/notebook/posts/he-would-leave-me-totally-free-isabelle-huppert-on-claude-chabrol).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Une Affaire de femmes, ADRC](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/une-affaire-de-femmes)\n2. [Scheda film: Une affaire de femmes, ASAC La Biennale di Venezia](https://asac.labiennale.org/attivita/cinema/8458)\n3. [Story of Women (1988), Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/41975/story-of-women-1988)\n4. [Story of Women (1988) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096336/awards/)\n5. [Story of Women, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/story-of-women-1988)\n6. [Rapport Assemblée nationale RAPPANR5L17B2244 on the history of abortion penalization in France](https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/opendata/RAPPANR5L17B2244.html)\n7. [History of the Venice Film Festival, La Biennale](https://www.labiennale.org/en/history-venice-film-festival)\n8. [Visas et Classification, CNC – Une affaire de femmes, visa 67782](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=67782)\n9. [Kevin Thomas, \"'Women': Study of Corruption, Hypocrisy,\" Los Angeles Times, 26 October 1989](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-26-ca-915-story.html)\n10. [The Claude Chabrol Collection, MK2 Films](https://mk2films.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/11/mk2-films-international.pdf)\n11. [Abortion, France, death penalty, history, woman's body, control (UGC journal article)](https://www.grandacademicportal.education/assets/images/documents/20180417220021.pdf)\n12. [\"France's Two Isabelles: Acting,\" Los Angeles Times, 3 January 1990](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-03-ca-313-story.html)\n13. [La répression, Assemblée nationale (anniversaire de la loi Veil)](https://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/evenements/2015/anniversaire-loi-veil/la-marche-vers-la-loi/la-repression)\n14. [Esther Duale, Status of women in Italy, France and Somalia (LUISS thesis)](https://tesi.luiss.it/30222/1/088992_DUALE_ESTHER.pdf)\n15. [La répression de l'avortement, 1939-1945, Centre d'histoire sociale des mondes contemporains (CNRS)](https://histoire-sociale.cnrs.fr/la-repression-de-lavortement-1939-1945/)\n16. [Une affaire de femmes, de Claude Chabrol, LeMagduCiné](https://www.lemagducine.fr/retrospectives/une-affaire-de-femmes-claude-chabrol-critique-retrospective-10039268/)\n17. [National Regeneration in Vichy France, University of Adelaide thesis](https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/61493/2/02whole.pdf)\n18. [\"Une affaire de femmes, au Festival de Venise: Un grand Chabrol,\" Le Monde, 4 September 1988](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/09/04/une-affaire-de-femmes-au-festival-de-venise-un-grand-chabrol_4088157_1819218.html)\n19. [Une affaire de femmes, Académie des César](https://www.academie-cinema.org/films/une-affaire-de-femmes/-28209/)\n20. [Story of Women, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/story_of_women)\n21. [Story of Women critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/story-of-women/critics-reviews)\n22. [Desson Howe, \"Ever-Rending 'Story of Women,'\" The Washington Post, 3 November 1989](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/03/ever-rending-story-of-women/c8b3e5fd-7b75-4cbf-a764-8fe545938129/)\n23. [Le Monde archives, 1 November 1988, on the attack against a cinema screening Une affaire de femmes](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1988/11/01/l-association-integriste-centre-charlier-se-defend-d-etre-a-l-origine-de-l-attentat_4121990_1819218.html)\n24. [Story of Women streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/story-of-women)\n25. [\"He Would Leave Me Totally Free\": Isabelle Huppert on Claude Chabrol, MUBI Notebook](https://mubi.com/de/notebook/posts/he-would-leave-me-totally-free-isabelle-huppert-on-claude-chabrol)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1986 to 1989*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Story of Women\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Story of Women](https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women](https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Story of Women\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-women. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Story of Women is Claude Chabrol's 1988 French drama starring Isabelle Huppert as an abortionist in Vichy France, based on Francis Szpiner's book about Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined in 1943; Huppert won the 1988 Venice Volpi Cup." }