SunnyHello
Nice effects though.
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
gavin6942
Marie Latour, a woman of limited schooling, raises two children in a ratty flat during World War II in occupied France. In 1941, her husband Paul returns from German captivity, too weak to hold a job. Marie discovers she can make money performing abortions, using a soapy water douche. Many of her clients are knocked up by occupying Germans.The film is based on the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined on July 30, 1943, for having performed 27 abortions in the Cherbourg area, and oddly enough has been embraced by John Waters. Waters is typically known more for endorsing "Christmas Evil" than French cinema, but this just goes to show how diverse his love is.I find it quite interesting that the French women are getting pregnant by German soldiers. While this is a frequent consequence of war (though hopefully diminishing), and virtually created modern Sicily, it is a rare thing to see it show up in a film. For that, I applaud them.
climbingivy
This movie that I watched a long time ago, and I just watched a bit of it recently, is a sad portrayal of a selfish female monster.I read on the reviews that she was an uneducated helpless woman who was aborting the little human beings of French women who had been having sex with German soldiers during the German occupation of France during the second world war.This uneducated woman was savvy enough to figure out a way to kill a slew of human beings in their mother's wombs.If she was able to do that it would seem that she could find a real job to support her family.I read on the reviews that her husband was to blame.I think that is utter nonsense.She was responsible for the murders of the babies,not anyone else.I feel sad for the aborted children and her children.It must have been horrible for her children to have to live with the fact that their mother was executed on the horrific machine of death the guillotine.I feel sad that a woman who is a mother would resort to such a heinous way to make money for her family.
Michael Neumann
Isabelle Huppert portrays an uneducated but self-reliant wartime mother of two, who almost ruthlessly assumes the traditional male role of family breadwinner by helping (to use an old euphemism) young girls 'in trouble'. The film isn't exactly impartial in its attitude toward the opposite sex, but don't me misled by the somewhat presumptuous title: it isn't strictly a story for women, and despite the vocation of its heroine has little to say about the volatile issue of abortion. The focus is more on the plight of women as second-class citizens, forced by necessity to fend for themselves (and rely on each other) while their men are away playing soldiers. It tells a complex story very simply, avoiding any soapbox grandstanding but allowing Huppert a chance to invest her character with plenty of gender-specific spleen. The final impact is undeniable: it's an often powerful experience, likely to stir up plenty of talk and emotion.
pegd-1
With cool detachment and a subtle touch of horror, Claude Chabrol dissects the story of a woman who was guillotined during the Nazi occupation of France. One of his strengths as a director is that he allows the movie goer to form his/her own thoughts and opinions about the issues at hand. He is not a proselytizer. The film covers a lot of ground: illegal abortion, collaborating with the enemy, parenting, marital communication, greed and a slew of other human weaknesses. All of this against the backdrop of an occupied France, a country who witnessed the horrors of WWI and never fully recovered, and whose WWII soul (what is left of it) has been torn apart.Isabelle Huppert does a fine job interpreting Marie LaTour, the woman in question. Marie is not the most sympathetic of characters. In fact, most of the major characters are not "sympathique".(My favorite character is the prostitute Lulu, acted by Marie Trintignant.)All in all a well directed, well structured film about a tragic period in the lives of the French people. But you be the judge.Trivia: "Vera Drake" and "L'Affaire de Femmes" both begin in apartments which have the the same god awful green walls.
