VIOLETTE

France in the early 1930s: teenager Violette lives with her parents, Baptiste Nozière, a train driver, and Germaine Nozière. Unbeknownst to Baptiste, he is not Violette's father, something known only to the 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' as well as her prostitution.

Violette's doctor informs her parents that she has contracted syphilis. She convinces them that she has inherited the disease and that they should take a "medicine" which is actually poison. The first murder attempt fails and both survive, although her mother is temporarily hospitalised. On the second attempt, her father dies, while the mother again 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 says that her sentence was commuted by degrees to the point that she ultimately left prison after 12 years, married, and had five children.

Violette's father is killed by poison, her mother survives, and Violette is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, though her sentence is later commuted and she is eventually released.

The film's conclusion with Violette's conviction and subsequent commutation reflects the ambiguous morality and societal judgment at play. Chabrol leaves the audience uncertain about the full truth behind Violette's allegations, highlighting the complexities of victimhood, culpability, and the era's shifting values. The coda—Violette's eventual reintegration into society—serves as a chilly commentary on rehabilitation and the mutability of public memory.