Existing versions of the film were an edited negative and 3 standard lavenders catalogued as ORTV version, South American version, and version n. 3 definitive. None of the copies were complete. We worked together with Charles Bitsch, assistant to Claude Chabrol, who was in possession of the original screenplay. From the negative and the three lavenders, it wasn’t in any case possible to obtain the complete version, as shot and edited by Claude Chabrol. We were only able to add in a small part that was missing. Later we found the missing sequences that had been cut by producers; the material was negative and standard lavender. We then struck a complete standard lavender using some parts of the negative and lavender material. A silent duplicate was made from the new complete lavender. We restored the sound and struck a new negative. The film hasn’t been seen in its original version since April 20, 1960.

Béatrice Valbin, Le Studio Canal

Only thanks to Charles Bitsch’s obstinate work it has been possible to trace back the origins of Les Bonnes Femmes; Bitsch was the Nouvelle Vague directors’ favourite director of photography and worked with Chabrol until Landru. Bitsch thus recalls the film unlucky vicissitudes “the Hakim brothers were among the most prestigeous producers of the time. For Les Bonnes Femmes they had arranged a prestigeous première in Paris and screened in the three theatres of the time: the Normandie, the Rex and the Moulin Rouge. On April, 20th 1960, the whole équipe is invited to a première at the Normandie theatre, together with the audience. It was a crazy and incredibly strange night. It is generally said that every film benefits from a sort of ‘state of grace’ during its first ten or fifteen minutes. In that occasion, it only lasted two minutes. After that, people started to scream, to leave the theatre, to swear. I have never in my life seen something like that in a cinema, never! (…). Pressed by the Hakim brothers, Chabrol had to accept the savage cutting of about twenty minutes of his film, which was not a very difficult task since there were only three copies of it. Later on, these cuts have been reintegrated on the negatives so that the copies, successively printed would conform to the mutilated film. (interview, Cahiers du Cinéma, n. 554, février 2001)