On Thursday January 17 at 9:05 p.m., France 5 broadcasts A women’s affair. A film inspired by a true story, that of “angel maker” Marie-Louise Giraud, hunted for having performed abortions during the occupation.
A filmmaker who is a master in the art of examining French society, Claude Chabrol became interested in a story like no other in 1998. For his film A women’s affairhe was inspired by the journey of Marie-Louise Giraud, guillotined at the age of 39 for having helped more than 20 women to abort. A personality portrayed by Isabelle Huppert, who here responds to François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant, Marie Bunel and even Nils Tavernier.
A women’s affair : Isabelle Huppert in “angel maker”
A women’s affair places its action in the provinces, during the Occupation. Far from her husband Paul, imprisoned in Germany, Marie Latour struggles to cope with daily life alongside her children Mouche and Pierrot. Everything will change after having a first abortion, while helping a neighbor. After Paul’s return, heavily scarred and unfit for work, she will perform many other abortions clandestinely. Abortions from which she will receive financial compensation and which will help her to gain independence in a sense, particularly alongside a lover. In a France under the control of the Vichy regime, she will be denounced and condemned…
A women’s affair or the true story of Marie-Louise Giraud
To make his film, Claude Chabrol relied on the eponymous book by lawyer Francis Szpine, published in 1988. A book which tells the story of Marie-Louise Giraud, one of the last guillotines in the country. Born on November 17, 1903 in Barneville, in Manche, she was a servant, a housekeeper, then a laundress. It was at the start of the Second World War that Marie-Louise Giraud performed her first abortions in the Cherbourg region, after having housed prostitutes. Initially providing a service, she will then earn money thanks to it. After carrying out 27 clandestine operations, she was arrested. Sentenced to the maximum sentence, her fate will do little to move Pétain’s France. Not entitled to the general’s pardon, Marie-Louise Giraud was guillotined on July 30, 1943 by the executioner Jules-Henri Desfourneaux, in Paris.
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