Memoirs of a French Whore (La Dérobade)

Daniel Duval directed La Dérobade, released in English as Memoirs of a French Whore; the French drama dates from 1979 and runs about 120 minutes. Christopher Frank wrote the screenplay, which is based on Jeanne Cordelier's autobiographical novel of the same name, published in 1976. In Germany it is known as Die Aussteigerin and in Spanish-speaking countries as Toda una mujer. Miou-Miou, Maria Schneider and Niels Arestrup star.

At its centre is Marie, nineteen and bored with her dull suburban life with no future. In a café she meets Gérard, a handsome, showy and talkative man, and falls for his charm. Blinded by love and far too trusting, she leaves her parents and her job as a sales assistant to move in with the man she thinks is the love of her life. Gérard is in fact a pimp, and he soon forces Marie into prostitution. She works first in a brothel, then on the street and in the Bois de Boulogne, and slowly discovers a world of decline and violence.

Besides Maria Schneider, the cast includes Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Isabelle Mergault, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Guy Kerner, Henry Djanik, Albert Dray, Béatrice Champanier, Benjamin Simon and Françoise Deldick, and Duval himself is also among the performers.