Format: Streaming video from Hulu+ on laptop.
I don’t think I have ever liked a character that Isabelle Huppert plays. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think she’s a good actor or that I don’t like her films. It just seems that she plays either loathsome characters, people with massive personality defects, or people who seem broken by their own personal choice. She’s no different in Une Affaire de Femmes (Story of Women), the best of her films I’ve seen to date. Yeah, I’m tipping my hand.
Marie Latour (Isabelle Huppert) lives with her two children, Pierrot (Guillame Foutrier/Nicolas Foutrier) and Mouche (Aurore Gauvin/Lolita Chammah) in Vichy France (I think—there’s a lot of commentary about Petain, at least) during World War II. Her husband has been sent to Germany as a worker, leaving her to make ends meet as best she can. She hits upon a new moneymaking scheme when her neighbor turns up pregnant. The neighbor’s boyfriend/husband is about to be shipped to Germany himself and doesn’t want any commitments. So Marie assist her in aborting the baby. This happens just as her husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) returns from Germany. As payment for this service, Marie gets a phonograph and a few records, something she prizes since she has aspirations of being a singer.
