A Story of Women
From Fri 15 to Sun 17 NovIn her second film with Chabrol, Isabelle Huppert stars as Marie Latour, a mother-of-two-turned-abortionist who tries to make ends meet in Nazi-occupied France. Based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud, who was guillotined in 1943, it documents Marie’s increasing sense of entrapment due to her class and gender, as well as her desire to improve her station through her illicit business. However, under the Collaborationist Vichy regime, abortion was construed as a crime against the State and Marie’s world is soon to collide with History.
The combination of Huppert’s nuanced, inscrutable performance (which won her the Best Actor Prize at the Venice Film Festival), Chabrol’s deceptively simple narration and great attention to period details and, last but not least, the striking resonances with the contemporary debates around abortion, all contribute to making A Story of Women essential viewing.
Pre-screening Talk
The screening will be preceded at 18.30 by a talk with Thierry Tuot, President at the Conseil d’Etat, who led the reflection on the revision of the French constitution to guarantee the right to abortion.
