Claude Chabrol traces the sordid and sad trajectory of Nazi-occupied France during World War II through the tragic, tumble-down journey of one woman. Isabelle Hupert plays Marie, a young woman with two children who has carved out a life for herself during her husbands absence, barely managing to feed her children, gleaning some happiness from jukeboxes and girlfriends, and by performing an occasional amateur abortion for her neighbors. When her shell-shocked husband returns from the labor camps, Marie takes matters into her own hands and turns her skills into a booming abortion business, boarding prostitute friends on the side and taking a collaborator for a lover. While Chabrol details Marie's descent into amorality with brutal honesty, he nonetheless contextualizes her sins and shows her truly as a victim of the chaos of France's confused response to Nazi occupation.

In STORY OF WOMEN, the mysteries of human psychology and motivation so often probed by Chabrol are set in sharp relief in the World War II setting of Vichy, France. The true story of a woman who is senselessly guillotined in Nazi-occupied France for performing an abortion on her troubled neighbor, the film presents remarkably complex and surprising characters and paints a portrait of an equally complex time in France's history.

Isabelle Huppert was awarded "Best Actress" for this role at the Venice Film Festival in 1988.

Based on UNE AFFAIR DES FEMMES by Francis Szpiner. Winner of the Best Foreign Film award from the National Board of Review.

STORY OF WOMEN was named the Best Foreign Film of the Year by the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Made with the participation of Louis Ducreux and Michel Beaune.

Excerpt: "I need to have fun. I'm still young, after all." -- Marie Latour (ISABELLE HUPPERT)

"It can't be harder than anything else." -- Marie Latour (ISABELLE HUPPERT) describing an abortion

"She's never been Jewish. She would've told me." -- Marie Latour (ISABELLE HUPPERT)

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 1.66
Audio:
Mono - French
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Claude Chabrol - Director (Scene Commentary)
Interviews - 1. Martin Karmitz - Producer
2. Francis Szpiner - Writer
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Image Galleries:
Director Filmography
Essays - 1. Wheeler Winston Dixon - Film Critic and Author

Isabelle Huppert: French Actress
François Cluzet: French Actor
Marie Trintignant: French Actress
Louis Ducreux: 
Michael Beaune: 
Dominique Blanc: French Actress
Marie Bunel: 

Claude Chabrol: French Director/Screenwriter

Andre Balland: 

Colo Tavernier O'Hagan: 
Claude Chabrol: French Director/Screenwriter

"...[Huppert] gives a triumphant performance in a story of injustice that's hard to take and harder to forget..."
"...Icily haunting, beautifully delineated....A keen eye for matter-of-fact horror..."
Included in the New York Times "10 Best Films of 1989" List
"...STORY OF WOMEN has a terrific sense of immediacy, an enormous vitality and a deep and broad perspective..."