''Violette Nozière'' is a 1978 French

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

and starring

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She is the recipient of sev ...

and

Stéphane Audran Stéphane Audran (born Colette Suzanne Dacheville; 8 November 1932 – 27 March 2018) was a French actress. She was known for her performances in award-winning films such as ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'' (1972) and ''Babette's Feast'' ...

. The film, based on a true French murder case in 1933, is about an eighteen-year-old girl named Violette and her encounters with a number of older men. The film had a total of 1,074,507 admissions in France.

Plot

Violette Nozière (Isabelle Huppert) is a French teen in the 1930s who secretly works as a prostitute while living with her unsuspecting parents, father Baptiste Nozière (Jean Carmet) and mother Germaine Nozière (Stéphane Audran). Rebelling against her "mean and petty" petit-bourgeois parents, she falls in love with a spendthrift young man, whom she virtually supports with thefts from her parents as well as her prostitution earnings. Meanwhile, her parents are informed by Violette's doctor that she has syphilis. Violette manages to half-persuade her suspicious mother and indulgent father that she has somehow inherited the disease from them. On this pretext, she tricks them into taking "medicine" that is actually poison, killing her father; her mother, however, survives, and Violette is arrested and charged with murder. She defends herself by alleging that her father had molested her; Chabrol's abrupt use of flashbacks makes it uncertain whether Violette is lying. She is convicted of murder and sentenced to die by

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...

but a voiceover at the end tells us that her sentence was commuted by degrees to the point that she ultimately left prison, married, and had five children.

Cast

Violette Nozière ''Violette Nozière'' is a 1978 French crime film directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Isabelle Huppert and Stéphane Audran. The film, based on a true French murder case in 1933, is about an eighteen-year-old girl named Violette and her en ...

Jean Carmet Jean Carmet (25 April 1920 – 20 April 1994) was a French actor. Life and career Jean Carmet began working on stage and then in film in the early 1940s becoming a very popular comedic actor in his native country. He is best known internatio ...

as Baptiste Nozière *

as Germaine Nozière *

Jean-François Garreaud Jean-François Garreaud (1 April 1946 – 9 July 2020) was a French actor. Biography Born to a father from Dordogne and a mother from Ardennes (department), Ardennes, Garreaud became an apprentice tiler at age fourteen. In 1968, he became an acco ...

as Jean Dabin *

Zoe Chauveau Zoe (also ZOE, Zoë, Zoé, etc.) can refer to: *ζωή (''zōḗ''), the Ancient Greek word for "life" People * Zoe (name), including list of persons and fictional characters with the name Film and television * Zoe (film), ''Zoe'' (film) * ZO ...

as Zoe the Maid *

Jean-Pierre Coffe Jean-Pierre Coffe (; 24 March 1938 – 29 March 2016) was a French radio and television presenter, food critic, and author. Early life and education Jean-Pierre Coffe spent a major part of his childhood in the town where he was born, Lunévill ...

as Dr. Deron *

Jean Dalmain Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

as Mr. Emile *Guy Hoffman as the Judge * Henri-Jacques Huet as Commissioner Guilleaume * Bernadette Lafont as Violette's Cellmate * Bernard Lajarrige as Andre De Pinguet *

Bernard Alane Bernard Alane (born Bernard Noël Vetel 25 December 1948) is a French actor and singer, he is the son of actress Annick Alane. He is best known in France for his roles in two films directed by Edouard Molinaro, ''Hibernatus ''Hibernatus'' is ...

as Pinguet's Son *

Lisa Langlois Lisa Langlois (born March 15, 1959) is a Canadian actress, who has appeared in movies, television and theater. Life and career Langlois was born in North Bay, Ontario. spent her childhood years in Hamilton, Ontario, where she attended a French ...

as Maddy *

Fabrice Luchini Fabrice Luchini (; born Robert Luchini; 1 November 1951) is a French stage and film actor. He has appeared in films such as '' Potiche'', ''The Women on the 6th Floor'', and '' In the House''. For his role in the 2015 film '' Courted'' he won t ...

as Camus *

Dominique Zardi Dominique Zardi (born Emile Jean Cohen-Zardi; 2 March 1930 – 13 December 2009) was a French actor from Paris. He acted in more than 200 feature films, including '' Fantômas'' with Louis De Funès and Jean Marais. He died of cancer at the age of ...

as Boy in Cafe

Awards and nominations

The film was entered into the main competition at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, where Isabelle Huppert won the award for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

. At the

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

, 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 New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' placed the film on its ''Best 1000 Movies Ever'' list.The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.
''

'' via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. Published April 29, 2003. Retrieved June 12, 2008.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Violette Noziere 1978 films 1978 crime drama films French crime drama films Crime films based on actual events Films set in the 1930s Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films about prostitution in France Canadian crime drama films Cultural depictions of French women Cultural depictions of prostitutes Cultural depictions of assassins Cultural depictions of female criminals Biographical films about criminals Fiction about familicide French-language Canadian films 1970s Canadian films 1970s French films

Plot

Cast

Awards and nominations

See also

References

External links