Story of Women (1988) poster
1988 · drama · war · abortion

Story of Women

Directed by Claude Chabrol1h 48m1988
ElsewhereIMDb7.56kRT85%TMDB7.3185
  • heavy
  • intense
  • bleak
Movie DNA

Heavy, steady, extreme drama / war, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

France, World War II. In order to somehow make ends meet, the mother of two children, Marie Latour, does underground abortions and rents a room to a familiar prostitute. She doesn't pay any attention to her husband, who returned from the war because of his injury, and lives her own life. Abortions gradually begin to bring a good income, and boredom can be easily dispelled by starting up with a young lover.

Our read · Story of Women (1988) reads as a heavy, steady, grounded drama · war · abortion entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Story of Women

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a stark unsentimental drama about women and abortion in wartime.

ends devastatingit will wreck yousteady all the waygrips by minute 20attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upnudity

Skip it tonightYou want light entertainment or avoid heavy historical trauma.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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