Story of Women · reception & legacy
1988 · Claude Chabrol
How Story of Women has been received, argued over, and remembered.
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.