Film Review
The true story of Violette Nozière provided director Claude
Chabrol with ample material for him to explore his pet themes of
bourgeois repression and the psychology of a murderer. This is
one of Chabrol's darker films and also one of his most complex,
employing a disorientating use of flashbacks to emphasise the dual
nature and possible mental instability of the heroine. The
picture that Chabrol paints is an ambiguous one - is Violette
Nozière a calculating hedonist lacking in scruples, or a victim
of bourgeois double standards, exploited and abused by all who know
her?
Isabelle Huppert won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her portrayal
of Violette Nozière, and deservedly so. This is the first
of many collaborations between Huppert and Chabrol, an association of
two immense talents that would yield many memorable films over the
decades that followed. In one of the defining performances
of her career, Huppert succeeds in conveying the moral and
psychological ambiguity of her character - the narcissistic egoism of
the spoiled child, the vulnerability of the woman in love, and the
calculating evil of a resolved killer. It is testament to
Huppert's skill as an actress that she portrays such a complex
character so convincingly, and in a way that evokes a sympathetic
reaction from the audience.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Claude Chabrol film:
Le Cheval d'orgueil (1980)
Film Synopsis
In 1933, Violette Nozière, 18, leads a respectable middleclass existence
with her father Baptiste, a railway engineer, and mother Germaine.
Violette's parents have high hopes for her daughter, thinking she will one
day land herself a wealthy husband and enjoy the kind of life they can only
dream of. But she has come to despise her petit-bourgeois life, epitomised
by the cramped apartment the family has to live in, and thinks only of escape.
Without her parents' knowing, Violette spends her nights in the company of
debauched young men, who take advantage of her innocence and wayward nature.
When the young woman contracts syphilis her parents are scandalised.
It is then that she makes her first attempt to kill them, unsuccessfully.
Not long afterwards, Violette falls passionately in love with a disreputable
young man, Jean Dabin, who goads her into stealing money from her parents.
When the crime is discovered, life for the rebellious young woman becomes
completely unbearable. Heedless of the consequences, she poisons her
parents. Her father dies, but her mother survives and does her best
to have her daughter condemned for murder. Violette's lies that she
has been abused by her father since childhood fall on deaf ears. She
is sentenced to death but has ample time to reflect on her crimes whilst
languishing in prison...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.