As noted above, the original French title of Claude Chabrol’s 1988 drama Story of Women is Une affaire de femmes, which I’m given to understand translates more directly to the phrase “womens’ business.” Certainly the term is used enough in the movie’s DVD subtitles, and women are more than central to the film it’s clear. As I reflect on the picture I’m conflicted though. I’m not sure how to classify it. It’s definitely not a “women’s picture” in the 1950s sense, nor is it an issues drama, despite the fact that its subject is as controversial as they come. Perhaps I’m clutching at straws, or simply unable to embrace it as a feminist work, but I can’t help but think of Story of Women as a war movie. After all, that’s what it is.
During the Nazi occupation of France, mother of two Marie (Isabelle Huppert) struggles to put food on the table. Her husband, a French soldier, is in a German prison camp, but the war has also brought on struggles away from the battle fields. A hard day’s work barely buys a sack of potatoes, and Marie’s young children make it difficult to find any form of sustainable employment. There are few men around her village besides the occupiers, and this causes problems for the local women. Many of their sweethearts have gone away, leaving them with no income until they return and can marry.
One day a neighbor comes to Marie in trouble. She’s pregnant, and though she knows the father is her French boyfriend, she’s convinced it is best for there to be no babies until he returns from his military service. Marie is sympathetic. She understands raising children without a father, and she’s willing to help the girl. Months later, another young woman arrives at her door, this time with a mother in tow who’s none too keen on the idea of her daughter baring an occupation baby. She offers Marie 1000 francs to handle the problem.
When Marie’s husband, Paul, arrives home, having been released, there is only temporary joy in the cramped apartment. He’s another mouth to feed, and his drinking is a concern. He’s also rather suspicious of what his wife has been up to in his absence. He even tries to get his son drunk to coax an explanation out of him. He expects that perhaps his wife has been taking on German Johns, but when the truth is revealed he’s apathetically cooperative. The now steady stream of income that Marie brings in with her services provides for a move to a better neighborhood as well as successive bottles of wine. He’s even compliant when her business branches out; growing to include the maintenance of a private room for less fortunate women to perform other questionable services out of.
Though finances and other problems seem to be behind the family, the marriage at its center is severely dysfunctional. Paul grows to resent Marie’s income and the sense of independence, both financial and sexual, that comes with it. Though perhaps not Chabrol’s intent, there were moments in which I felt a sympathy for Paul even greater than that which I held for Marie. This, I believe, is the film’s primary weakness.
I have never wanted to use this blog to make any sort of outright political statement, nor do I wish it to become a forum for such comments. (Though at this point it becoming a forum for anything might be welcomed.) However, from a purely narrative standpoint, creating a sympathetic character who’s an abortionist is a tough sell, and this is why I prefer to classify Story of Women as a war movie.
Films about war are filled with male characters driven to commit atrocities by the extraordinary circumstances of their times. I see this film no differently in that respect. War, and it’s resulting political, economic, and social conditions, does prompt an increase in black market activities and the numbers of individuals who trade in such goods and services. Examples of this are prevalent in countless war movies from Casablanca (1942) to Schindler’s List (1993).
However, much of what makes many of the characters in these films so compelling is the change of heart they experience that guides them from selfish practices to a more patriotic or humanistic cause. I’m not sure that the same shift is at work here in Story of Women. Many of the women who employ Marie’s services are desperate for her help, but not all of them are better off for having received it. And for her part, Marie never seems to lose most of her selfish motivations. I’m sure that a feminist film theorist could dispute these points, and I’d be willing to hear all arguments, but there are two things that cannot be denied.
Marie is a war profiteer. There is no doubt about this. She finds a way to better her own situation through taking advantage of the situations and vulnerabilities of others, and it can be difficult to make such characters endearing. The other undeniable truth is that the film’s ending asks us to feel sympathy for her because she is a woman and a mother. It seems to me that she deserves no more sympathy for either of these traits, and any feminist who would argue this has a skewed definition of equality.
Story of Women is one of the finest technical achievements in motion pictures that I can recall from the late 1980s, but from a narrative standpoint it’s stuck in the mud. There is a well-known screenwriter’s guide that suggests that every sympathetic hero must have a “save the cat” moment early in a film. This is the small action that endears the character to the audience by proving that they are not a completely soulless cynic. Think of most popular films and their main characters, and the save the cat moment should come to mind (it’s often as early as the opening credits in romcoms, because the writers feel they have to suck audiences into those faster than dramas). Now imagine if you will a character that saves a cat, and then does it again, is offered money for doing so, and then continues to go about the remainder of the film looking for cats to save, hoping to enjoy the lucrative financial benefits of said cat saving activities. That’s Story of Women, and for that reason it just didn’t work for me.
Language: French
Runtime: 108 Minutes
Grade: 2 Hats Off
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