Sightlines · reception

How Story of Women was received

1988 · Claude Chabrol · Story of Women on Sightlines

The arc

Acclaimed from the start — Venice loved it in 1988 and it's long been ranked among Chabrol's very best — but it was also genuinely controversial in France, drawing protests from Catholic groups over its abortion subject; post-2022, Letterboxd reviewers keep rediscovering it as suddenly, uncomfortably current.

What’s debated

The perennial debate is whether Chabrol's famously cold, non-judgmental eye makes his heroine's story more devastating or lets him off the hook — plus the endless Vera Drake comparison thread.

Its footprint

It's the go-to reference point whenever cinema and abortion politics collide, routinely paired with Vera Drake in essays and lists, and a pillar of the Huppert–Chabrol collaboration that cinephiles treat as one of cinema's great actor-director runs.

Where it stands

A 'you must see this' entry for Huppert devotees and a steady canon-climber among Chabrol's fifty-odd films, often cited alongside La Cérémonie as his peak.

Did you know? Isabelle Huppert won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1988 Venice Film Festival for this role — sharing the prize that year with Shirley MacLaine (for Madame Sousatzka).