Violette Nozière

Violette Nozière, also titled Violette, is a 1978 French–Canadian crime drama film directed by Claude Chabrol starring Isabelle Huppert and Stéphane Audran. It tells the true story of teenage prostitute and murderer Violette Nozière, who poisoned her parents in 1933 France.[1]

Violette
French Theatrical release poster
Directed byClaude Chabrol
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJean Rabier
Edited byYves Langlois
Music byPierre Jansen
Production
companies
  • Filmel (France)
  • F.R.3 (France)
  • Cinévidéo (Canada)
Distributed byGaumont (France)
Release dates
  • 20 May 1978 (1978-05-20) (Cannes)
  • 24 May 1978 (1978-05-24) (France)
Running time
124 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • Canada
LanguageFrench
BudgetCAD 1,360,000

Plot

France in the early 1930s: teenager Violette lives with her parents, father Baptiste Nozière, a train driver, and mother Germaine Nozière. Unbeknownst to Baptiste, he is not Violette's real father, a secret shared only by mother and daughter. Rebelling against her petit-bourgeois parents, Violette secretly works as a prostitute. She falls in love with student Jean Dabin, whom she supports with thefts from her parents' belongings as well as her prostitution earnings.

Violette's doctor informs her parents that she has contracted syphilis. She manages to talk her father and mother into believing that she has inherited the disease from them and to take a "medicine" which is actually poison. The first murder attempt fails, both parents survive, only her mother is temporarily hospitalised. On the second attempt, her father dies, while the mother survives. Violette tries to cover up her crime as a suicide, but is convicted and put to trial, where she claims that she had been raped by her father (an allegiation which the film neither confirms nor refutes). The jury sentences her to death by guillotine, but a voiceover tells the viewer that her sentence was commuted by degrees to the point that she ultimately left prison in 1945, married, and had five children.

Cast

Background

Violette Nozière was entered into the main competition at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where Isabelle Huppert won the award for Best Actress.[2] At the César Awards, Stéphane Audran was awarded Best Supporting Actress. The film was also nominated in three other categories: Best Actress (Isabelle Huppert), Best Music (Pierre Jansen) and Best Production Design (Jacques Brizzio).

The film had a total of 1,074,507 admissions in France.[3]

The New York Times placed Violette Nozière on its 2004 "Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" list.[4]

References
  1. "Life for Violette". Time. 7 January 1935. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  2. "Festival de Cannes: Violette Nozière". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  3. JP (24 May 1978). "Violette Nozière (1978)". JPBox-Office. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  4. "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made". The New York Times. 2004. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
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