| Violette | |
| Director: | Claude Chabrol |
| Music: | Pierre Jansen |
| Cinematography: | Jean Rabier |
| Editing: | Yves Langlois |
| Distributor: | Gaumont (France) |
| Runtime: | 124 minutes |
| Language: | French |
| Budget: | CAD 1,360,000 |
Violette Nozière, also titled Violette, is a 1978 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]
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 that they should take a "medicine" which is actually poison. The first murder attempt fails and both parents survive, although 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 tried and convicted, despite her saying that she had been raped by her father (an allegation 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.
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]