“I saw right away that this was someone perverse, with a distorted perception.”

Based on a true story, the Claude Chabrol film Violette explores the life and crimes of the troubled young Violette Noziere in 1930s Paris. The film very quickly establishes that Violette (Isabelle Huppert) leads a double life. Living with her parents in a cramped claustrophobic flat, she’s the dutiful, quiet modestly-dressed daughter–forbidden to even attend the cinema. But once she leaves the flat, she dons expensive clothing, cakes on the make-up and hits the streets. As she leaves home, even her demeanor changes. Violette shifts from the sullen silence of a child to a bold seductress. And once her submerged personality emerges, she smoothly earns money by prostituting herself to men she meets in bars and clubs.

Violette’s home life is peculiar. In the tiny flat, Violette sees everything that goes takes place between her mother (Stephane Audran) and her train driver father, Baptiste (Jean Carmet), and there are hints that something very unhealthy lurks beneath the surface. When Violette comes home with a dose of venereal disease and tells her parents it’s hereditary, it becomes quite clear that there are many levels of deceit and denial taking place in the family. Violette’s parents both act quite differently to the news that she has inherited her disease from them, and their reactions, given the circumstances of Violette’s birth, are very odd.

Violette’s wild double life–maintained with alibis and lies–involves a degree of willingness to be deceived. Her mother, in particularly doesn’t seem to be entirely fooled–while her father asks fewer questions and seems on the indulgent side. Eventually Violette’s secret life leads her to a penniless ne’er-do-well, Jean Dabin (Jean-Francois Garreaud). Jean assumes Violette is rich, and she showers him with a constant flow of gifts and money….

Violette is not Chabrol’s best film, but it’s still fascinating. While some elements of this true story are predictable, the psychological depths of Violette’s crimes make for riveting viewing. And, of course, with Isabelle Huppert in the role of the complicated Violette, it’s vastly entertaining to watch this great actress flip in and out of Violette’s double life. The film offers no judgments concerning Violette’s true motives, but it does play with possibilities. Ultimately, it’s for the viewer to decide if Violette was a victim, a cold callous murderer with mercenary aims, or perhaps a bit of both. In French with English subtitles.