"A Girl Cut In Two" is the kind of movie that requires a lot of patience from its audience (it moves slowly and runs long), without really rewarding them for it at the end. Listed by IMDb as a drama/thriller, it is basically a drama about a young weather girl (and later TV show host) caught in two parallel relationships with a middle-aged writer and a rich heir about her age, with the "thriller" part (such as it is) coming into play only in the last 20 minutes. One of the main problems with the film is that the viewer can see right away that neither of these relationships is going to work out - the older man is married and just looking for cheap thrills, the younger man acts borderline psychotic right from the start - and you wonder how the heroine, who seems fairly smart in most ways, can be so naive as to not see that these two men are unworthy of her time. Perhaps the two most likable characters - the heroine's uncle and the young man's little sister - have very little screen time. The film is very well-acted, especially by Ludivine Sagnier and Francois Berléand, but ultimately it is a minor work for someone of Claude Chabrol's great reputation. (**)
35 Reviews
Old Man Look at my Life
ferguson-629 October 2008
Greetings again from the darkness. With splashes of dark humor, I mostly found the film depressing. There are few things more disheartening than a totally desperate woman longing to be loved by one jerk, let alone two.
Luckily, this desperate woman is played by the gorgeous Ludivine Sagnier (from the far superior Swimming Pool). She is a TV weathergirl and talk show host who falls completely for an old man novelist (played very well by Francois Berleand). When she is spurned by the old guy, totally annoying, rich boy stalker comes along to rescue her. Trust fund baby Paul is played creepily by Benoit Magimel, who steals most of his scenes.
Directed by French master Claude Chabrol, the film just never allowed me to connect with any of the players. They all seemed to hate themselves and have no respect for anyone else. Quite the party, eh? The performances are such that it is watchable though I would have appreciated a more detailed characterization throughout the script. One simple question ... why did she fall for the old man? Just a baffling development for me.
Luckily, this desperate woman is played by the gorgeous Ludivine Sagnier (from the far superior Swimming Pool). She is a TV weathergirl and talk show host who falls completely for an old man novelist (played very well by Francois Berleand). When she is spurned by the old guy, totally annoying, rich boy stalker comes along to rescue her. Trust fund baby Paul is played creepily by Benoit Magimel, who steals most of his scenes.
Directed by French master Claude Chabrol, the film just never allowed me to connect with any of the players. They all seemed to hate themselves and have no respect for anyone else. Quite the party, eh? The performances are such that it is watchable though I would have appreciated a more detailed characterization throughout the script. One simple question ... why did she fall for the old man? Just a baffling development for me.
Engaging but one of the French masters lesser works
tomgillespie200216 January 2016
The Girl Cut in Two was one of the great Claude Chabrol's final films in an astonishing career that span 58 years before his death in 2010. The former Cahiers du Cinema journalist was famously a huge fan of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, writing about the Master of Suspense at length for the magazine before Chabrol's own work weaved together Hitchcock's sublime blend of melodrama and tension with Chabrol's own French New Wave (his debut Le Beau Serge is widely considered the first). This 2007 effort does much of the same, but the emphasis is more on the melodrama for the main bulk of the film and it lacks the New Wave edge of his early, greater works.
Pretty young weather-girl Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier) catches the eye of the rich and famous author Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand) when the latter is interviewed at the TV station she works for. Charles performs a book signing at Gabrielle's mother's book store, where he is confronted by the filthy-rich heir to a pharmaceutical company, Paul Gaudens (Benoit Magimel), while Charles invites Gabrielle to accompany him to an auction. The clearly unhinged Paul also lusts after Gabrielle, and begins an aggressive pursuit of her while she is off falling in love with the arrogant and pretentious (and married) Charles.
Sagnier is particularly lovely as a character who may have come across as spoiled and selfish if not handled quite so delicately. There are fewer things quite as uncomfortable to watch than a nice girl caught up in a love triangle with two absolute arseholes, and Berleand and Magimel certainly bring a complexity, and even flashes of sympathy, to their loathsome man-children. Gabrielle is pulled back and forth between the two - the metaphor of the title also plays out almost literally in a slightly surreal final scene - and this goes on for quite a while. It gradually builds up to the inevitable and the film begins to feel more juicy, however by the time this happens there aren't quite enough minutes remaining to fully explore its full potential. Certainly engaging but one of the French auteurs lesser works.
Pretty young weather-girl Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier) catches the eye of the rich and famous author Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand) when the latter is interviewed at the TV station she works for. Charles performs a book signing at Gabrielle's mother's book store, where he is confronted by the filthy-rich heir to a pharmaceutical company, Paul Gaudens (Benoit Magimel), while Charles invites Gabrielle to accompany him to an auction. The clearly unhinged Paul also lusts after Gabrielle, and begins an aggressive pursuit of her while she is off falling in love with the arrogant and pretentious (and married) Charles.
Sagnier is particularly lovely as a character who may have come across as spoiled and selfish if not handled quite so delicately. There are fewer things quite as uncomfortable to watch than a nice girl caught up in a love triangle with two absolute arseholes, and Berleand and Magimel certainly bring a complexity, and even flashes of sympathy, to their loathsome man-children. Gabrielle is pulled back and forth between the two - the metaphor of the title also plays out almost literally in a slightly surreal final scene - and this goes on for quite a while. It gradually builds up to the inevitable and the film begins to feel more juicy, however by the time this happens there aren't quite enough minutes remaining to fully explore its full potential. Certainly engaging but one of the French auteurs lesser works.
good premise, not so credible development
massimo-pigliucci31 August 2008
The premise of the movie, that two super-size ego men, one young and rich and the other old and famous, go after a young woman, who doesn't know what she is getting into, is interesting. Unfortunately, the woman's feelings for the two seem to develop at a fast food pace that undermines the credibility of the entire story. Some reviewers have argued that the central female character is more complex and nuanced than previous attempts by director Claude Chabrol. If so, I cannot imagine how misogynist his previous movies were. Still worth it, especially for the acting performance by François Berléand. If you want to pay attention to a sexy and attractive woman in the movie, though, forget about the main character, and focus on Capucine, played by Mathilda May.
SCOOP : It's Chabrol's best movie since "L'enfer" (1994).
moimoichan610 September 2007
Accordind to the IMDb's listing, "La Fille coupée en deux" is the 69th Claude Chabrol's movie since 1958 and his first movie "Le beau Serge". 69 : with that number, Chabrol has managed to outnumber his old master : Alfred Hitchckock. And if all of his movies are not as good as Hitchcock's ones (none of them actually), I'm sure his last one would have amused Sir Alfred, for it's certainly one of his richest and intriguing movie since many years. I thing I've not been such intrigued by a Chabrol's since "L'enfer" in 1994 and its "No end" ending.
"La Fille coupée en deux" apparently deals with the same subject as "L'enfer" : love, and it's tragic consequences. But if "L'enfer" mostly dealt with madness and jealousy, "La fille..." approaches tragedy (but always in a cynical and almost funny way : Chabrol's universe is alway game-full) with the thematic of desire. It's the girl cut in half of the tittle that crystallizes this desire : Gabrielle Aurore Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), a young TV-host, desires an older and decadent writer Charles Saint Denis (the great François Berléand) and is desired by a young and crazy aristocrat (Benoît Magimel, it's the first time to me that he's quite acceptable in a movie). Chabrol plays for a time with his characters ans his spectators, who don't exactly know where he wants to bring us. But the game is interesting enough to be played.
This movie looks a lot like Woody Allen's "Scoop", with Ludivide Sagner as a french Scarlet Johanson. Chabrol even quotes Woody Allen in the movie, and shares with him the same tragic but insouciant thriller tone. But it's really the similarity with another director that stroke me with this movie. It's the first time that a Chabrol's movie strangely sometimes looks like a Brisseau's. Chabrol uses here, as in Brisseau's "Choses Secrètes", symbolic feminine mythological figures in order to develop his thematics ( it's particularly striking in the dichotomously representation of Charles Saint Denis' two woman : his white and angel-like wife, and his dark and mysterious Capucine). But it's mostly in the desire's representation in the strange club where Saint Denis likes to go that the two directors share some common points. Of course, whereas Brisseau is more than explicit, Chabrol doesn't show anything, but the moral fable aspect of the movie, with a Hitchcock's influence in the way Chabrol "suspenses" the desire representation, makes this movie quiet near to Brisseau's universe.
Anyway, it's been a very long time since a Chabrol's movie didn't appear to me as rich, original and surprising as this one.
"La Fille coupée en deux" apparently deals with the same subject as "L'enfer" : love, and it's tragic consequences. But if "L'enfer" mostly dealt with madness and jealousy, "La fille..." approaches tragedy (but always in a cynical and almost funny way : Chabrol's universe is alway game-full) with the thematic of desire. It's the girl cut in half of the tittle that crystallizes this desire : Gabrielle Aurore Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), a young TV-host, desires an older and decadent writer Charles Saint Denis (the great François Berléand) and is desired by a young and crazy aristocrat (Benoît Magimel, it's the first time to me that he's quite acceptable in a movie). Chabrol plays for a time with his characters ans his spectators, who don't exactly know where he wants to bring us. But the game is interesting enough to be played.
This movie looks a lot like Woody Allen's "Scoop", with Ludivide Sagner as a french Scarlet Johanson. Chabrol even quotes Woody Allen in the movie, and shares with him the same tragic but insouciant thriller tone. But it's really the similarity with another director that stroke me with this movie. It's the first time that a Chabrol's movie strangely sometimes looks like a Brisseau's. Chabrol uses here, as in Brisseau's "Choses Secrètes", symbolic feminine mythological figures in order to develop his thematics ( it's particularly striking in the dichotomously representation of Charles Saint Denis' two woman : his white and angel-like wife, and his dark and mysterious Capucine). But it's mostly in the desire's representation in the strange club where Saint Denis likes to go that the two directors share some common points. Of course, whereas Brisseau is more than explicit, Chabrol doesn't show anything, but the moral fable aspect of the movie, with a Hitchcock's influence in the way Chabrol "suspenses" the desire representation, makes this movie quiet near to Brisseau's universe.
Anyway, it's been a very long time since a Chabrol's movie didn't appear to me as rich, original and surprising as this one.
The local weather girl
jotix10021 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
It takes a talented director and his collaborating screen writer to turn a typical American story into a bourgeois French drama with a different take on the same basic premise. That is what Claude Chabrol, and Cecile Maistre, who is also his step-daughter, accomplished with this film about obsession and lust that involves a an emotional triangle that one knows is doomed from the start.
Gabrielle Deniege, a young television weather person in Lyon, seems to be enjoying herself; she has a promising career and from what one sees, she is the object of desire by her TV boss, who will, no doubt, push her to bigger things in exchange of sexual favors. Alas, Gabrielle has a mind of her own, but even she can't resist the advances of the much older Chales Saint-Denis, a writer she happens to meet at the store where her mother manages. Charles takes a shine to the young woman, who in turn is seduced by the idea of being with the older man.
At the same time, the rich young heir of a pharmacy fortune, Paul Gaudens, appears at the same book signing session. He too, it seems, is impressed by young Gabrielle. He begins pursuing her, but little does he know Gabrielle is already involved with Saint-Denis. The older lover takes her to his secret apartment in the city, as well as introducing her to the naughty club he frequents. He has another thing in mind, as we shall learn later on.
In the meantime, when the old man decides to go on a trip to England, he drops Gabrielle to fend for herself. Paul, seizes on the opportunity to show how much he cares by taking her to Lisbon, although their affair is, in a sense, a puritanical one. Since Gabrielle senses that Charles is out of the picture, she decides to marry Paul on the rebound. When Saint-Denis shows up again, it's already too late.
This film that evidently was made for television shows a different Chabrol, a man who has made a career as a master of the suspense. Alas, there is not so much in this picture, but the viewer is hooked from the beginning of the story, as he knows there will be fireworks out of the elements at stake.
The three principals, Ludivine Sagnier, Francois Berleand, and Benoit Magimel, that appear as the angles of the romantic trio, do fine work under Mr. Chabrol's direction. We particularly liked the work of Mr. Berleand, who gives us an excellent chance to enjoy his nuanced performance. Ms. Saigner keeps getting better all the time, and the same could be said about Mr. Magimel, a promising young actor who worked with the director in "La fleur du mal". Caroline Sihol, who is seen as Paul's mother, gives a touch of class as the rich and controlling society woman.
Even a minor Chabrol is better than most of what comes out of France these days.
Gabrielle Deniege, a young television weather person in Lyon, seems to be enjoying herself; she has a promising career and from what one sees, she is the object of desire by her TV boss, who will, no doubt, push her to bigger things in exchange of sexual favors. Alas, Gabrielle has a mind of her own, but even she can't resist the advances of the much older Chales Saint-Denis, a writer she happens to meet at the store where her mother manages. Charles takes a shine to the young woman, who in turn is seduced by the idea of being with the older man.
At the same time, the rich young heir of a pharmacy fortune, Paul Gaudens, appears at the same book signing session. He too, it seems, is impressed by young Gabrielle. He begins pursuing her, but little does he know Gabrielle is already involved with Saint-Denis. The older lover takes her to his secret apartment in the city, as well as introducing her to the naughty club he frequents. He has another thing in mind, as we shall learn later on.
In the meantime, when the old man decides to go on a trip to England, he drops Gabrielle to fend for herself. Paul, seizes on the opportunity to show how much he cares by taking her to Lisbon, although their affair is, in a sense, a puritanical one. Since Gabrielle senses that Charles is out of the picture, she decides to marry Paul on the rebound. When Saint-Denis shows up again, it's already too late.
This film that evidently was made for television shows a different Chabrol, a man who has made a career as a master of the suspense. Alas, there is not so much in this picture, but the viewer is hooked from the beginning of the story, as he knows there will be fireworks out of the elements at stake.
The three principals, Ludivine Sagnier, Francois Berleand, and Benoit Magimel, that appear as the angles of the romantic trio, do fine work under Mr. Chabrol's direction. We particularly liked the work of Mr. Berleand, who gives us an excellent chance to enjoy his nuanced performance. Ms. Saigner keeps getting better all the time, and the same could be said about Mr. Magimel, a promising young actor who worked with the director in "La fleur du mal". Caroline Sihol, who is seen as Paul's mother, gives a touch of class as the rich and controlling society woman.
Even a minor Chabrol is better than most of what comes out of France these days.
Juvenile in every way
tsd33319 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
The plot is plain dumb, and we are dealing, in the main, with characters who are living their private fantasies of what they perceive modern, sophisticated French urban lifestyle is all about. There is always a glass of something close to hand, much of the "action" takes place at meal tables, and too much discourse centers on who bonked whom and how long ago. Female lead Ludivine Sagnier, playing a vivacious TV weather girl,can't make up her mind whether she's in love with a very self-important author older than her mother, or disgusted by him. Simultaneously she's dealing half-heartedly with the close attentions of a very wealthy and very smitten young man whose immaturity and emotional imbalance grated on this viewer. How will it all turn out?With characters like these, does anybody care?
How happy would I be with either. . .
Chris Knipp20 September 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Chabrol's latest film (La Fille coupée en deux) is a barbed comedy set in the city of Lyons. A charming young TV weather person, Gabrielle Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), suddenly finds two men competing for her affections. The successful writer Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand) is appearing on TV when he first runs into Gabrielle; her mother (Marie Bunel) works at the bookstore where he's later signing his new book. Though he's a good thirty years her senior, they feel an instant connection. To her, he's sexy, fascinating, and rich. But not nearly so rich as Paul Gaudens (Benoit Magimel), the capricious young heir to a vast local pharmaceutical fortune. With his tinted Napoleonic hairdo and flamboyant wardrobe, Magimel spins onto each scene like some spoiled princeling. He's amusing, absurd, and a bit menacing. There are obvious hints that he may be completely wacko. He spots Gabrielle too at the book signing, falls for her, and woos her aggressively henceforth. Saint-Denis lives with professed contentment and serenity in a splendid superbly brittle ultramodern house in the country and has a vivacious and understanding and longstanding wife (Dona, Valeria Cavalli. Gaudens lives in a mansion with his widowed mother (Caroline Sihot) and two grown sisters. Both men have some dark scandals and improprieties hidden in their past, though we don't learn much about them. In this relatively provincial world they are well acquainted with, and have always cordially detested, each other.
It appears that Gabrielle is led into some indecencies by Charles, whose special club and in-town pied-a-terre she visits more than once. Preposterous as it may seem, Paul, who's head-over-heels for Gabrielle, appoints himself Gabrielle's moral savior. Though she's sought after by Canal+ and her current boss wants to make her the emcee of a new show, Gabrielle eschews these opportunities for advancement and instead devotes nearly all her time to pursuing or being pursued by these two men, enjoying the attentions of the curiously endearing Paul, but running off the instant the sophisticated Charles summons herbecause he's the one she truly adores. (In the French cinema, older men are quite commonly seen as the more attractive.) Both Berleand, a convincing ladies man, and the visually transformed Magimel, by now a Chabrol regular if not a male muse, are splendid in their roles. Sagnier, whom Americans will probably best remember as Tinker Belle or the naughty young woman in Ozon's Swimming Pool, projects a world of beauty, charm, vivacity, and (relative) innocence.
The Girl Cut in Two is highly amusing. The script by Chabrol's longtime assistant Cecile Maistre sparkles with witty zingers in every scene and has particular fun with the literary world, "intellectual" TV shows, and as always with the director, the gilded squalor of the upper bourgeoisie. This being Lyons, one of France's chief gastronomic capitals, there are lots of good restaurants and there's lots of good wine; many coupes of good champagne are tossed back. Nifty sports cars are drivenand when Paul arrives anywhere in his, he leaves it at the door, and tosses away the ticket afterwards with a disdain any driver would envy. For a good part of the time, each scene is more fun than the last.
The dialogue is smooth and glib, but it's also smart. This isn't a murder mystery, though a pistol does appear and later it is used. It's more a portrait of emotional conflict. And it treats issues of high and low; of love trumping ambition and then turning out to be naïve; about wealth and madness; about men and women; youth and age. At the center of it is Gabrielle's "search for love." But in focusing on Paul and Charles, Gabrielle is, of course, carrying out that search in two quite wrong places. Both men are as deeply tempting as they are flawed, so it's no wonder she wavers hopelessly between them.
Gabrielle marries Paul, but only on the rebound from Charles. This leads to unhappiness, discontent, and finally violence. The film has transposed to contemporary times (without loss of credibility) the story of the 1906 murder, in New York, of the famous American architect and womanizer Stanford White (represented here by the writer) by the husband of his latest mistress. It's a theme dealt with before, notably in Richard Fleischer's 1955 Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and Milos Forman's 1981 screen adaption of E.L. Doctorow's novel, Ragtime. But the Maistre-Chabrol treatment is unique.
The Girl Cut in Two is one of Chabrol's lightest and brightest and most buoyant films. It may not, as few can, rest on the top shelf with his absolute classics, but it is the best thing he's done in years.
The film was shown at the New York Film Festival 2007 in September; it opened in France in early August.
It appears that Gabrielle is led into some indecencies by Charles, whose special club and in-town pied-a-terre she visits more than once. Preposterous as it may seem, Paul, who's head-over-heels for Gabrielle, appoints himself Gabrielle's moral savior. Though she's sought after by Canal+ and her current boss wants to make her the emcee of a new show, Gabrielle eschews these opportunities for advancement and instead devotes nearly all her time to pursuing or being pursued by these two men, enjoying the attentions of the curiously endearing Paul, but running off the instant the sophisticated Charles summons herbecause he's the one she truly adores. (In the French cinema, older men are quite commonly seen as the more attractive.) Both Berleand, a convincing ladies man, and the visually transformed Magimel, by now a Chabrol regular if not a male muse, are splendid in their roles. Sagnier, whom Americans will probably best remember as Tinker Belle or the naughty young woman in Ozon's Swimming Pool, projects a world of beauty, charm, vivacity, and (relative) innocence.
The Girl Cut in Two is highly amusing. The script by Chabrol's longtime assistant Cecile Maistre sparkles with witty zingers in every scene and has particular fun with the literary world, "intellectual" TV shows, and as always with the director, the gilded squalor of the upper bourgeoisie. This being Lyons, one of France's chief gastronomic capitals, there are lots of good restaurants and there's lots of good wine; many coupes of good champagne are tossed back. Nifty sports cars are drivenand when Paul arrives anywhere in his, he leaves it at the door, and tosses away the ticket afterwards with a disdain any driver would envy. For a good part of the time, each scene is more fun than the last.
The dialogue is smooth and glib, but it's also smart. This isn't a murder mystery, though a pistol does appear and later it is used. It's more a portrait of emotional conflict. And it treats issues of high and low; of love trumping ambition and then turning out to be naïve; about wealth and madness; about men and women; youth and age. At the center of it is Gabrielle's "search for love." But in focusing on Paul and Charles, Gabrielle is, of course, carrying out that search in two quite wrong places. Both men are as deeply tempting as they are flawed, so it's no wonder she wavers hopelessly between them.
Gabrielle marries Paul, but only on the rebound from Charles. This leads to unhappiness, discontent, and finally violence. The film has transposed to contemporary times (without loss of credibility) the story of the 1906 murder, in New York, of the famous American architect and womanizer Stanford White (represented here by the writer) by the husband of his latest mistress. It's a theme dealt with before, notably in Richard Fleischer's 1955 Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and Milos Forman's 1981 screen adaption of E.L. Doctorow's novel, Ragtime. But the Maistre-Chabrol treatment is unique.
The Girl Cut in Two is one of Chabrol's lightest and brightest and most buoyant films. It may not, as few can, rest on the top shelf with his absolute classics, but it is the best thing he's done in years.
The film was shown at the New York Film Festival 2007 in September; it opened in France in early August.
both slyly self-aware and an enjoyably serious movie about ill-fated bourgeois
Quinoa198426 August 2008
At this point in Claude Chabrol's career one might expect him to cut loose and do something just totally crazy and not to give a hoot about his consistent style as a director. A Girl Cut in Two, for better or worse, is still disciplined and carefully constructed and directed, and maybe because of this once in a while suffers from not wavering in its approach; it's kind of like That Almost Obscure Object of Desire. But within its set terms the film is enjoyable and even has a kind of biting underlying wit to the proceedings.
I would think this film might appeal more to the middle or lower class as opposed to upper class and wealthy as the former can perhaps relish in this tumultuous love life of this weather girl Gabrielle (very beautiful Ludivine Sagnier, kind of a prettier Chloe Sevigny) and the classic "turning the men's worlds upside down" formula. As for fans of Chabrol, and this goes without saying it's not a great film, it's a sign that, like Woody Allen, he isn't going anywhere and still has some ideas kicking around.
It's about the effect Gabrielle has on a man twice her age, novelist Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand in a quietly powerful and thoughtful performance), and a spoiled and possibly emotionally combustible guy more her age, Paul (Benoit Magimel, very good in that his performance is narrowed to being this creepy person). She really is head over heels for the older man, who sadly is also (happily) married to his wife of many years, while Paul does all but wave a sign saying "pick me, I'm free, pick me" (with the line "I get what I always want" crossed out save for when he's drunk). It's like a double Catch 22 situation, leading up to a marriage, a murder, and other occurrences. Chabrol presents all of this in what appears to be a straightforward style, which usually suits him best, and within this comes out the moral complexities.
This could be enough for a decent movie, if maybe a little slight in the mostly bourgeois atmosphere, but Chabrol heaps on some social commentary to boot: it's not just Paul but also Charles that put up a kind of front of complacency that is hard to crack for Gabrielle. It's slightly playful, mostly harsh, but always controlled satire, not of the laugh-out-loud kind but where one might chuckle or raise an eyebrow at a plot point or scene of specific acting. It's an interesting approach which isn't entirely effective but never makes it boring. A Girl Cut in Two is acted just as it should (Caroline Silhol particularly gives a deliciously icy performance as Paul's mother), and is written and directed with a knowledge of its audience. 7.5/10
I would think this film might appeal more to the middle or lower class as opposed to upper class and wealthy as the former can perhaps relish in this tumultuous love life of this weather girl Gabrielle (very beautiful Ludivine Sagnier, kind of a prettier Chloe Sevigny) and the classic "turning the men's worlds upside down" formula. As for fans of Chabrol, and this goes without saying it's not a great film, it's a sign that, like Woody Allen, he isn't going anywhere and still has some ideas kicking around.
It's about the effect Gabrielle has on a man twice her age, novelist Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berleand in a quietly powerful and thoughtful performance), and a spoiled and possibly emotionally combustible guy more her age, Paul (Benoit Magimel, very good in that his performance is narrowed to being this creepy person). She really is head over heels for the older man, who sadly is also (happily) married to his wife of many years, while Paul does all but wave a sign saying "pick me, I'm free, pick me" (with the line "I get what I always want" crossed out save for when he's drunk). It's like a double Catch 22 situation, leading up to a marriage, a murder, and other occurrences. Chabrol presents all of this in what appears to be a straightforward style, which usually suits him best, and within this comes out the moral complexities.
This could be enough for a decent movie, if maybe a little slight in the mostly bourgeois atmosphere, but Chabrol heaps on some social commentary to boot: it's not just Paul but also Charles that put up a kind of front of complacency that is hard to crack for Gabrielle. It's slightly playful, mostly harsh, but always controlled satire, not of the laugh-out-loud kind but where one might chuckle or raise an eyebrow at a plot point or scene of specific acting. It's an interesting approach which isn't entirely effective but never makes it boring. A Girl Cut in Two is acted just as it should (Caroline Silhol particularly gives a deliciously icy performance as Paul's mother), and is written and directed with a knowledge of its audience. 7.5/10
Tedious, pretentious, simplistic, formulaic, ... retire old man.
chochobbly13 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Dear oh dear, it's hard to believe someone with the pedigree and experience of Chabrol could bring himself to put his name to this awful film. The plot and characters all step straight out of bad film cliché-land; a woman torn between two lovers, one the older, wiser but cynical ....and oh my God...a writer too. The other, young, rich, aristocratic, gregarious but emotionally scarred, perhaps even slightly mad. The female characters don't come off much better; the eponymous girl bisected trundles around the set - and it very much has the feel of a film set, of a movie being made- with an insipid demeanour which may have made sense if she had subsequently shown some degree of erratic, explosive, contradictory behaviour. She doesn't. While the male characters are two-dimensional mannequins, at least a couple of the other female characters hint at having a life beyond the page we are watching them being draped across. But not much.
Very lazy work, suggest you read a telephone directory instead, it will give you more insight into the human condition.
Very lazy work, suggest you read a telephone directory instead, it will give you more insight into the human condition.
Les ruptures
dbdumonteil11 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The two most honest comments on this Chabrol's poor effort are by Writers Reign's and Hcaruso's.But to be honest is not rewarding cause their insightful essays were mostly deemed "non useful".
To write that "La Fille Coupée En Deux" is a near scene -for- scene ripoff is to state the obvious:the great Richard Fleischer's "the girl on the red velvet swing"(1955) had already told the story in a much better way.People who dismiss the two comments I mention above should watch it,then decide if they are wrong.
I was in my car in the summer of 2007 when I heard a Chabrol interview on the radio.He was savoring Foie Gras on toast while talking about his new movie.He did not mention Richard Fleischer although in an American interview (reproduced by Jdcopp) he said he knew and he liked the movie:but he certainly thought that the French audience was not learned enough to know the American director or maybe he wanted to avoid any comparison.For that matter,he was right.
Chabrol has been making movies for years ,and I have probably seen more of his works than any other French director,with the exception of Julien Duvivier.To think that around 1970,he was my favorite FRench director;at the time ,his actors were the Creme De LA Creme :Michel Bouquet,Stephane Audran,Jean Yanne,Michel Piccoli...Not that FRançois Berléand is a bad actor:he's simply not handsome enough to portray this greybeard -whereas James Mason...- :it takes a lot of imagination to believe that Ludivine Seignier is crazy about him.I have never liked Benoit Magimel who anyway is miscast as a playboy (Farley Granger he is absolutely not).It's supporting actress Caroline Sihol who saves the end of the movie with her terrifying portrayal of an over possessive mother who tells the heroine she is not one of them ,that is to say one of the bourgeoisie ,Chabrol's favorite target: this is the only Chabrolesque touch ,which reminds me of "La Rupture" (1970) in which Stephane Audran was an intruder too .
As for the two final scenes (Chabrol's and Fleischer's),Joan Collins swinging to the moon is much more memorable than Chabrol's equivalent ,which also steals the "show " idea from the 1955 work.
To make the heroine a weather girl is not a good idea either ,for ,in France ,these persons are often looked upon as "stars" , whereas Fleischer's babe was a music hall dancer,not an honorable job at the time .
Chabrol's passion for gastronomy which shows in ALL his movies is here more present than ever.They do not stop eating or drinking champagne except when they make love,drive or kill.And even....
To write that "La Fille Coupée En Deux" is a near scene -for- scene ripoff is to state the obvious:the great Richard Fleischer's "the girl on the red velvet swing"(1955) had already told the story in a much better way.People who dismiss the two comments I mention above should watch it,then decide if they are wrong.
I was in my car in the summer of 2007 when I heard a Chabrol interview on the radio.He was savoring Foie Gras on toast while talking about his new movie.He did not mention Richard Fleischer although in an American interview (reproduced by Jdcopp) he said he knew and he liked the movie:but he certainly thought that the French audience was not learned enough to know the American director or maybe he wanted to avoid any comparison.For that matter,he was right.
Chabrol has been making movies for years ,and I have probably seen more of his works than any other French director,with the exception of Julien Duvivier.To think that around 1970,he was my favorite FRench director;at the time ,his actors were the Creme De LA Creme :Michel Bouquet,Stephane Audran,Jean Yanne,Michel Piccoli...Not that FRançois Berléand is a bad actor:he's simply not handsome enough to portray this greybeard -whereas James Mason...- :it takes a lot of imagination to believe that Ludivine Seignier is crazy about him.I have never liked Benoit Magimel who anyway is miscast as a playboy (Farley Granger he is absolutely not).It's supporting actress Caroline Sihol who saves the end of the movie with her terrifying portrayal of an over possessive mother who tells the heroine she is not one of them ,that is to say one of the bourgeoisie ,Chabrol's favorite target: this is the only Chabrolesque touch ,which reminds me of "La Rupture" (1970) in which Stephane Audran was an intruder too .
As for the two final scenes (Chabrol's and Fleischer's),Joan Collins swinging to the moon is much more memorable than Chabrol's equivalent ,which also steals the "show " idea from the 1955 work.
To make the heroine a weather girl is not a good idea either ,for ,in France ,these persons are often looked upon as "stars" , whereas Fleischer's babe was a music hall dancer,not an honorable job at the time .
Chabrol's passion for gastronomy which shows in ALL his movies is here more present than ever.They do not stop eating or drinking champagne except when they make love,drive or kill.And even....
A Girl Divided by the Love for Two Scumbags
claudio_carvalho17 July 2011
In Lyon, the successful middle-aged writer Charles Saint-Denis (François Berléand) lives isolated with his wife Dona Saint-Denis (Valeria Cavalli) in a comfortable house in the country. His friend Capucine Jamet (Mathilda May) invites him to promote his latest novel in a talk show and in an autograph evening in a bookstore. In both occasions, the cynical Charles meets the witty and gorgeous TV weather-girl Gabrielle Aurore Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), whose mother Marie Deneige (Marie Bunel) works in the bookstore. Meanwhile, Gabrielle is promoted to host a show on television, and is wooed by the arrogant heir to a pharmaceutical fortune Paul André Claude Gaudens (Benoît Magimel), who is Charles' enemy and invites Gabrielle to have dinner with him.
Charles invites Gabrielle to go with him to an auction and then they go to his apartment in Paris. The inexperienced Gabrielle has one night stand with him and falls in love with Charles, who teaches kinky sex to her. Then he brings Gabrielle to a men's club where she is perverted. Sooner Charles travels to London and forgets Gabrielle.
Gabrielle is lovesick and depressed without strength to live. Paul insists in visiting her and finally Marie agrees. Paul and Gabrielle travel to Lisbon and Gabrielle accepts to marry him. She tells to Paul what Charles has done to her and after the wedding, the possessive Paul feels jealous with the experience of Gabrielle on bed. His jealousy leads to a tragedy and Gabrielle has to choose between keeping her intimacy with Charles or disclosing it in court.
"La Fille Coupée en Deux" is the penultimate film by Claude Chabrol with the story of a naive and gorgeous girl divided in two by the love for two scumbags. Ludivine Sagnier is impressively beautiful in this story that has elements of "Bitter Moon", with the cruelty and perversions of a man to a woman in love with him.
Chabrol, as usual, does not disclose everything and the viewer that shall use his or her imagination to guess the sort of kink sex and perversions the gorgeous Gabrielle has been submitted since neither in the club nor in court the viewer sees or hears anything. However, it seems that when Charles tells that Gabrielle could be the last girl he brings to his apartment, he seems to be interested in her innocence and lack of experience. When she accepts to go to the club and have sex with his friends, he loses the interest on her. I only do not see where people have seen comedy or black comedy in the plot of this great film. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Uma Garota Dividida em Dois" ("A Girl Divided in Two")
Charles invites Gabrielle to go with him to an auction and then they go to his apartment in Paris. The inexperienced Gabrielle has one night stand with him and falls in love with Charles, who teaches kinky sex to her. Then he brings Gabrielle to a men's club where she is perverted. Sooner Charles travels to London and forgets Gabrielle.
Gabrielle is lovesick and depressed without strength to live. Paul insists in visiting her and finally Marie agrees. Paul and Gabrielle travel to Lisbon and Gabrielle accepts to marry him. She tells to Paul what Charles has done to her and after the wedding, the possessive Paul feels jealous with the experience of Gabrielle on bed. His jealousy leads to a tragedy and Gabrielle has to choose between keeping her intimacy with Charles or disclosing it in court.
"La Fille Coupée en Deux" is the penultimate film by Claude Chabrol with the story of a naive and gorgeous girl divided in two by the love for two scumbags. Ludivine Sagnier is impressively beautiful in this story that has elements of "Bitter Moon", with the cruelty and perversions of a man to a woman in love with him.
Chabrol, as usual, does not disclose everything and the viewer that shall use his or her imagination to guess the sort of kink sex and perversions the gorgeous Gabrielle has been submitted since neither in the club nor in court the viewer sees or hears anything. However, it seems that when Charles tells that Gabrielle could be the last girl he brings to his apartment, he seems to be interested in her innocence and lack of experience. When she accepts to go to the club and have sex with his friends, he loses the interest on her. I only do not see where people have seen comedy or black comedy in the plot of this great film. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Uma Garota Dividida em Dois" ("A Girl Divided in Two")
Low Octane Chabrol, But Still Worth A Watch
Seamus282925 November 2008
For years,French suspense director,Claude Chabrol has often been regarded as the Gallic Alfred Hitchcock. For this outing, he has mined the harbor of Woody Allen, and come up a wee bit short. Ludivine Sagnier plays an attractive weather girl who is torn between her affections for an older man,who is a famous writer, and a spoiled rich boy,who claims to adore her. It's up to her to decide which one she is to take up with. This film will probably be a major turn off to those who are appalled by the whole April/December affair (he's old enough to be her grandfather). It still beats watching 'High School Musical 3' (which isn't saying much). No MPAA rating,but contains some vulgar language & adult situations,which are somewhat tastefully depicted with restraint.
In The Cut.
morrison-dylan-fan11 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Recently watching a superb double bill of François Truffaut works,I got in the mood to see a title from fellow French New Wave auteur Claude Chabrol. Finding her excellent in 8 Women and Love Crime,I was intrigued to find out that Ludivine Sagnier had cut a girl in two with Chabrol.
View on the film:
Becoming the man of Gabrielle's obsession, François Berléand gives a disappointing performance as Denis,which stands cold from Berléand offering neither swagger or passion to express how Denis becomes the centre of Gabrielle's attention. Playing on a romance where nothing is given in return, fit Ludivine Sagnier gives a very good performance as Gabrielle,with Sagnier trying to bring some passion between her and Berléand,along with swaying to catch the eyes of a rival would-be lover. "Unofficially" updating the ripped from the headlines Stanford White murder of 1906, the screenplay by co-writer/(with assistant director Cécile Maistre) director Claude Chabrol saws into the major theme across his work of the murderous self-absorbed state of the bourgeoisie, but misses cynical richness by stretching the run time to just under 2 hours,which leads to tension drying up,even when the girl is cut in two.
View on the film:
Becoming the man of Gabrielle's obsession, François Berléand gives a disappointing performance as Denis,which stands cold from Berléand offering neither swagger or passion to express how Denis becomes the centre of Gabrielle's attention. Playing on a romance where nothing is given in return, fit Ludivine Sagnier gives a very good performance as Gabrielle,with Sagnier trying to bring some passion between her and Berléand,along with swaying to catch the eyes of a rival would-be lover. "Unofficially" updating the ripped from the headlines Stanford White murder of 1906, the screenplay by co-writer/(with assistant director Cécile Maistre) director Claude Chabrol saws into the major theme across his work of the murderous self-absorbed state of the bourgeoisie, but misses cynical richness by stretching the run time to just under 2 hours,which leads to tension drying up,even when the girl is cut in two.
Better see again The Girl On the Red Velvet Swing
hcaraso17 August 2007
Maybe I was wrong to see first THE GIRL ON THE RED VELVET SWING, reissued in Paris on the very day Chabrol presented his last movie.
The true story of Evelyn Nesbit, magnificently filmed by Richard Fleischer in 1955 with Ray Milland, Joan Collins and Farley Granger, is rewritten by Chabrol and Cécile Maistre without the slightest credit for TGRVS, unfortunately unavailable either on DVD or VHS. Chabrol is a very talented director, with a long and successful career, based essentially on cruel criticism of his own class (the French Bourgeoisie), which provided him with everything necessary to achieve a long career, certainly not without merit. The man, some time ago reputed for drawing his stories while playing Gottlieb electric pool with his friends, has certainly great talent in directing the best available actors.
Unfortunately, in spite of combined efforts, the script is a mere copy of TGRVS,moved into modern France's literary and cynical wealthy world.But the "bourgeois", everywhere, are typical masochists.The actors are good, especially François Berléand performing the Ray Milland role, but Benoit Magimel's is a mere caricature of the part played by Farley Granger in 1955.
There is a general lack of inspiration governing the cinema of today; exceptions like INTERVIEW, by and with Steve Buscemi,plus Sienna Miller, although reminding vaguely Mankiewicz's SLEUTH, but propped by strong professionalism, are much more attractive than this pale copy of Fleischer's chef d'oeuvre.
It seems that Evelyn Nesbit has also inspired E.Doctorow and Milos Forman, for RAGTIME. I hope somebody would bring it back on our screens, or on TV, while Chabrol's imitation is still on. Harry Carasso, Paris, France
The true story of Evelyn Nesbit, magnificently filmed by Richard Fleischer in 1955 with Ray Milland, Joan Collins and Farley Granger, is rewritten by Chabrol and Cécile Maistre without the slightest credit for TGRVS, unfortunately unavailable either on DVD or VHS. Chabrol is a very talented director, with a long and successful career, based essentially on cruel criticism of his own class (the French Bourgeoisie), which provided him with everything necessary to achieve a long career, certainly not without merit. The man, some time ago reputed for drawing his stories while playing Gottlieb electric pool with his friends, has certainly great talent in directing the best available actors.
Unfortunately, in spite of combined efforts, the script is a mere copy of TGRVS,moved into modern France's literary and cynical wealthy world.But the "bourgeois", everywhere, are typical masochists.The actors are good, especially François Berléand performing the Ray Milland role, but Benoit Magimel's is a mere caricature of the part played by Farley Granger in 1955.
There is a general lack of inspiration governing the cinema of today; exceptions like INTERVIEW, by and with Steve Buscemi,plus Sienna Miller, although reminding vaguely Mankiewicz's SLEUTH, but propped by strong professionalism, are much more attractive than this pale copy of Fleischer's chef d'oeuvre.
It seems that Evelyn Nesbit has also inspired E.Doctorow and Milos Forman, for RAGTIME. I hope somebody would bring it back on our screens, or on TV, while Chabrol's imitation is still on. Harry Carasso, Paris, France
Ultimate Aphrodiasic
JohnDeSando3 November 2008
"The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young." Oscar Wilde
I'm cut in two myself: wanting A Girl Cut in Two to be a companion piece to Patrice Leconte's unforgettable Girl on the Bridge (1999) and yet realizing it is wrong to expect such a complement. French icon Claude Chabrol's Girl Cut is an amusing and agonizing romance between an older writer and a young TV weather girl, about 30 years in between their ages. The story of the lost young woman and her older carnival knife thrower in Girl on a Bridge has layers of emotion where Girl Split contains little depth but the same type of metaphors.
Girl Cut recycles the January-May love affair, similar to the recent Elegy about a young woman and an older professor. The immediate attraction between the two is not explored, just the girl's voluptuousness and his pot-belly, receding hair, and low energy level. But then I should not forget the ultimate aphrodisiac: intellectualism. The common denominator is the mind meld, enacted by an aging thinker/artist and a young open mind.
The figurative splitting is woven into the plot: A spoiled, rich young man, Paul Gaudens (Benoit Magimel), falls for an indifferent Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier), who has a yearning for the older writer Charles Saint-Denis (Francoise Berleand). The triangle illustrates the complex yearnings of an attractive young woman, whose mother (Marie Bunel) spies Gabrielle's need for the father figure as well as her own wish for her daughter to be financially comfortable. The warfare among the classes is typically Francaise.
As for Gabrielle, it is never clear where her love for the old man comes from, for she never seems to read his works, and their interaction before the first tryst is superficial. Perhaps she has a thing for big bellies and bald pates.
I'm cut in two myself: wanting A Girl Cut in Two to be a companion piece to Patrice Leconte's unforgettable Girl on the Bridge (1999) and yet realizing it is wrong to expect such a complement. French icon Claude Chabrol's Girl Cut is an amusing and agonizing romance between an older writer and a young TV weather girl, about 30 years in between their ages. The story of the lost young woman and her older carnival knife thrower in Girl on a Bridge has layers of emotion where Girl Split contains little depth but the same type of metaphors.
Girl Cut recycles the January-May love affair, similar to the recent Elegy about a young woman and an older professor. The immediate attraction between the two is not explored, just the girl's voluptuousness and his pot-belly, receding hair, and low energy level. But then I should not forget the ultimate aphrodisiac: intellectualism. The common denominator is the mind meld, enacted by an aging thinker/artist and a young open mind.
The figurative splitting is woven into the plot: A spoiled, rich young man, Paul Gaudens (Benoit Magimel), falls for an indifferent Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier), who has a yearning for the older writer Charles Saint-Denis (Francoise Berleand). The triangle illustrates the complex yearnings of an attractive young woman, whose mother (Marie Bunel) spies Gabrielle's need for the father figure as well as her own wish for her daughter to be financially comfortable. The warfare among the classes is typically Francaise.
As for Gabrielle, it is never clear where her love for the old man comes from, for she never seems to read his works, and their interaction before the first tryst is superficial. Perhaps she has a thing for big bellies and bald pates.
Machanical and not that clever
dbborroughs12 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Claude Chabrol's thriller about a TV weather girl who is having an affair with an older married writer while at the same time she is being pursued by the slightly unhinged son of a wealthy family.
Good but rather mechanical thriller from master director Chabrol. Apparently There was a further mystery involved with the film in that he tried to have his connection with the film kept quiet as a way of lessening expectations. The performances are all quite good including François Berléand (the cop in the Transporter films) as the older love of our heroine. The problem for me was that I could sense the construction of the film as I was watching it as we are handed the pieces of the puzzles one at a time so as to lead us down the garden path. I could feel us going somewhere and waited to be misdirected. Unfortunately when I got to the end of the film I was left felling as though I missed something. Since I was watching the film on IFC's on Demand I re-watched the end of the film (actually the last 20 minutes) three times to see if I had missed something. Apparently not. This isn't to say its bad, its not, its just that I was disappointed by the fact that I had spent almost two hours for an okay ending.
Worth a look on cable or as a rental but not for ten bucks a head in theaters.
Good but rather mechanical thriller from master director Chabrol. Apparently There was a further mystery involved with the film in that he tried to have his connection with the film kept quiet as a way of lessening expectations. The performances are all quite good including François Berléand (the cop in the Transporter films) as the older love of our heroine. The problem for me was that I could sense the construction of the film as I was watching it as we are handed the pieces of the puzzles one at a time so as to lead us down the garden path. I could feel us going somewhere and waited to be misdirected. Unfortunately when I got to the end of the film I was left felling as though I missed something. Since I was watching the film on IFC's on Demand I re-watched the end of the film (actually the last 20 minutes) three times to see if I had missed something. Apparently not. This isn't to say its bad, its not, its just that I was disappointed by the fact that I had spent almost two hours for an okay ending.
Worth a look on cable or as a rental but not for ten bucks a head in theaters.
The Harry Thaw murder case updated and set in 21st century France.
planktonrules27 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Gabrielle is young, gorgeous and on her way up in life. She is a TV weather lady but the network has plans for her to become an anchor. She also seems very confident, bright and articulate. Yet, at the same time, she's a complete idiot when it comes to men. She has two simultaneous affairs--one with a married author (Charles) and one with a super-possessive and scary heir to a huge family fortune (Paul). Neither is a great choice--the married guy is interesting and she loves him, but he'll never leave his wife. Paul, on the other hand, seems to have nothing to offer--other than, perhaps, money. He is so possessive that anyone with half a brain would run from him--and at first she does. But, when she realizes her married lover isn't ever going to commit, she marries the nut-case on the rebound. And you KNOW that all this will end in tragedy--partly because of the plot and partly because it's a Claude Chabrol movie and they almost always end with someone dying! So, until something horrid happens, you sit back and just wait....
You know, it's interesting that this is actually a recreation of the famous very early 20th century American crime--when a very unstable millionaire (Harry Thaw) murdered architect Stanford White in front of MANY witnesses. It was prompted by Thaw's jealousy about his wife's affair with the much older White before she married Thaw. And, in an interesting twist, Thaw (so some extent) got away with it--spending a bit of time in a mental hospital and not prison or capital punishment. When I realized all this, it made the ending of "Girl Cut in Two" a foregone conclusion. In every major way, it's the same story set now in 21st century France. Even the way the killer's mother reacts to the wife is pretty much the same as well as the court case.
So, the plot, though interesting, is certainly not original and is 100% predictable. Yet, despite the poor choice of recreating the original story almost exactly (a bit mistake--they should have rearranged the story much more), the film is good. The acting is excellent and the deliberate pace very nice. It looks good and is more enjoyable to those who don't know American history, nor have seen "Ragtime" or "The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing". It's interesting how few of the other reviewers realized this was based on the famous Thaw trial--and this does put an entirely different slant on the movie. And, it's also sad that this unoriginal plot was director Chabrol's last film--though his direction, to be fair, was very good.
By the way, and this is NOT a criticism of Chabrol, but I am getting sick of seeing people refer to his films as 'Hitchcockian'. Part of this is because exactly what this is no one can really say. Also, it's not fair to Chabrol--can't a film be 'Chabrolian'?! Just me two cents.
You know, it's interesting that this is actually a recreation of the famous very early 20th century American crime--when a very unstable millionaire (Harry Thaw) murdered architect Stanford White in front of MANY witnesses. It was prompted by Thaw's jealousy about his wife's affair with the much older White before she married Thaw. And, in an interesting twist, Thaw (so some extent) got away with it--spending a bit of time in a mental hospital and not prison or capital punishment. When I realized all this, it made the ending of "Girl Cut in Two" a foregone conclusion. In every major way, it's the same story set now in 21st century France. Even the way the killer's mother reacts to the wife is pretty much the same as well as the court case.
So, the plot, though interesting, is certainly not original and is 100% predictable. Yet, despite the poor choice of recreating the original story almost exactly (a bit mistake--they should have rearranged the story much more), the film is good. The acting is excellent and the deliberate pace very nice. It looks good and is more enjoyable to those who don't know American history, nor have seen "Ragtime" or "The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing". It's interesting how few of the other reviewers realized this was based on the famous Thaw trial--and this does put an entirely different slant on the movie. And, it's also sad that this unoriginal plot was director Chabrol's last film--though his direction, to be fair, was very good.
By the way, and this is NOT a criticism of Chabrol, but I am getting sick of seeing people refer to his films as 'Hitchcockian'. Part of this is because exactly what this is no one can really say. Also, it's not fair to Chabrol--can't a film be 'Chabrolian'?! Just me two cents.
A movie of two very different parts, and neither of them are of interest.
lewiskendell6 April 2011
I'll be honest, I only watched The Girl Cut in Two because I think Ludivine Sagnier is a Class A hottie. So it's probably not a shock that I was underwhelmed by it.
It's a rather French movie about a woman (Sagnier) who is pursued by two men, a young and emotionally volatile rich man, and an older married writer. Both men are ultimately bad options, and the movie quickly changes from something of a charming romantic film to something much darker in tone. It could be called "a movie cut in two", if a person wanted to be clever (which I do).
Anyway, neither half of the movie was particularly good, in my opinion. The narrative tended to wander, Sagnier's character seemed silly and unsympathetic with little explanation of why, and the other characters were almost universally unlikable or uninteresting. Combine all that with the odd (and not in a compelling way) ending, and The Girl Cut in Two becomes a movie that I probably wouldn't recommend.
It's a rather French movie about a woman (Sagnier) who is pursued by two men, a young and emotionally volatile rich man, and an older married writer. Both men are ultimately bad options, and the movie quickly changes from something of a charming romantic film to something much darker in tone. It could be called "a movie cut in two", if a person wanted to be clever (which I do).
Anyway, neither half of the movie was particularly good, in my opinion. The narrative tended to wander, Sagnier's character seemed silly and unsympathetic with little explanation of why, and the other characters were almost universally unlikable or uninteresting. Combine all that with the odd (and not in a compelling way) ending, and The Girl Cut in Two becomes a movie that I probably wouldn't recommend.
entertaining
wvisser-leusden30 March 2009
The first thing that pops in mind after watching 'La fille coupée en deux' (= French for 'the girl cut into two parts') is, that this film provides good entertainment.
Devoid of any intellectual or philosophical pretensions, director Claude Chabrol's product does not tell an original story either. It deals with a love affair of a married man over 50, with a girl that easily could have been his daughter. Having another male lover of her own age in the background, this triangle predictably results in disaster.
What makes 'La fille coupée en deux' special, however, is the refined, typical French way of telling its story. Although doubtless serious, the plot of this film never and nowhere puts a heavy weight on your mind. The advertising on my DVD's French sleeve hits it well: "a dramatic comedy, soft as well as bitter, orchestrated by a master's hand".
Good entertainment, I said. No more than that - and certainly no less than that.
Devoid of any intellectual or philosophical pretensions, director Claude Chabrol's product does not tell an original story either. It deals with a love affair of a married man over 50, with a girl that easily could have been his daughter. Having another male lover of her own age in the background, this triangle predictably results in disaster.
What makes 'La fille coupée en deux' special, however, is the refined, typical French way of telling its story. Although doubtless serious, the plot of this film never and nowhere puts a heavy weight on your mind. The advertising on my DVD's French sleeve hits it well: "a dramatic comedy, soft as well as bitter, orchestrated by a master's hand".
Good entertainment, I said. No more than that - and certainly no less than that.
A Fine French Film about Romance!
Sylviastel27 March 2012
The film is well-done but I have issues with the script. Anyway, the plot unfolds when an older successful famous author, Charles Saint Denis, meets a weather girl at the Lyon TV station. He's married to a saint Dona and lives in the country most of the time. He also has an apartment in town. He is smitten by the blonde young weather girl, Gabrielle. Her mother is a book seller with a shop in town and they meet again. Still, he's taken with her and his wife's away so he'll play. Poor Gabrielle, she's stuck in the middle. She is in a dead end romance with the married author and courted by Paul Gaudens, a drunken party animal and heir to the Gaudens family fortune. His father was a successful chemist and his mother is the socialite. Paul has secrets in his past that his family have fought to protect him from. Anyway, this film is about Gabrielle's relationship with both men. The ending isn't one that I see coming and takes the film into another direction. I think Gabrielle was playing with fire with both men. Charles was married to Dona and Paul was unstable. Gabrielle wanted happiness and love but was used and mistreated.
Snow White and the lecher
richard_sleboe1 November 2007
You keep hoping it's a lecherous old man's tongue-in-cheek self-parody, but there is little doubt Chabrol is dead serious as this story of a twenty-something weather girl's obsession with a prominent writer three times her age proceeds. She (Ludivine Sagnier) falls for the old geezer (François Berléand) within the first five pages of the script, and for no reason. The remainder of the script takes her from the frying pan of social stigma into the fire of manic depression. I can't help feeling sorry for her, but as I examine my feelings, I find I empathize with the actress for being cast in such a lousy movie, rather than with her character for what she goes through. Think "Stealing Beauty" meets "To Die For", co-scripted by Henry Miller and Milan Kundera. Utterly disgusting. Watch out for saucy sisters Joséphine (Clémence Bretécher) and Eléonore (Charley Fouquet) though, the only self-determined girls in a parade of pinup puppets on Chabrol's string.
Welcome to variety, here is French culture
hubertackerl4 September 2007
What a refreshment. Beautiful natural women. Cristallclear contemplation of relationships between man and women. A strong leading actress. Benoit Magimel is excellent. In fact this hinders him to be Oscar ripe. An Oscar winner like Chris Cooper in Adaptation plays that subtle and appealing you never think about any valuation during the movie. Anyway this movie is a distinct peace of French culture. Not fully taken -so far, because Disney really tries to conquer and eat the French - by the US hegemonic movie industry. I am from Austria and I am used to see only Hollywood movies as our Film board decided to abandon home made public motion pictures for the sake of intellectual festival movies. And in Austria only the French problem movies like "Ma mere" do reach the audience. So I was in France and saw something different from the super artificial, super commercial Hollywood or US movies. What a culture relief. Long live variety.
A GIRL CUT IN TWO (Claude Chabrol, 2007) ***
Bunuel197620 May 2010
Updating (and transposing to France) an American cause célèbre of the early 1900s – already lavishly filmed in Hollywood as THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING (1955) – this is one of the few cases (like ALICE OR THE LAST ESCAPADE [1977], M. LE MAUDIT [1982; TV], QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY [1990], DR. M [1990], MADAME BOVARY [1991] and L'ENFER [1994]) where Chabrol attempted to put his stamp on material already dealt with by other hands. In this, he was not unlike Fritz Lang (who had remade two Jean Renoir films in the U.S.) and it seems no coincidence that the scenes in A GIRL CUT IN TWO depicting the elder male lead spending time with his equally jaded colleagues in an exclusive men's private club evoke memories of Lang's THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944).
If the film itself is wholly predictable and certainly cannot be counted among Chabrol's very best efforts, this attests to the high standard of his oeuvre. Though the beguiling Ludivine Sagnier is at the centre of it, her character actually serves mainly to enlighten those of the (more interesting) couple of men she becomes involved with: successful middle-aged novelist Francois Berleand (who resembles a lot the way Werner Herzog looks today!) and the conceited yet volatile member of a fallen aristocracy played by Benoit Magimel. Incidentally, I could not help noticing how, for the most part, the various romantic neuroses involved, set as they are against an elitist backdrop, almost feel like your typical Woody Allen product! As such, the plot offers little surprises – that is, apart from an implied raw sexuality – but the solid craftsmanship, infused with Chabrol's trademark meticulousness and irony (as with THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING, the heroine ends up a sideshow attraction!), and a most able cast ensure one's interest never wavers throughout.
Unfortunately, the copy I acquired of this film was supplied with one of the worst set of subtitles I have ever encountered – though the sense of what was being said generally came through nonetheless in the broken English adopted, every so often it was so intractable as to prove quite amusing (or infuriating, depending on how you look at it)!
If the film itself is wholly predictable and certainly cannot be counted among Chabrol's very best efforts, this attests to the high standard of his oeuvre. Though the beguiling Ludivine Sagnier is at the centre of it, her character actually serves mainly to enlighten those of the (more interesting) couple of men she becomes involved with: successful middle-aged novelist Francois Berleand (who resembles a lot the way Werner Herzog looks today!) and the conceited yet volatile member of a fallen aristocracy played by Benoit Magimel. Incidentally, I could not help noticing how, for the most part, the various romantic neuroses involved, set as they are against an elitist backdrop, almost feel like your typical Woody Allen product! As such, the plot offers little surprises – that is, apart from an implied raw sexuality – but the solid craftsmanship, infused with Chabrol's trademark meticulousness and irony (as with THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING, the heroine ends up a sideshow attraction!), and a most able cast ensure one's interest never wavers throughout.
Unfortunately, the copy I acquired of this film was supplied with one of the worst set of subtitles I have ever encountered – though the sense of what was being said generally came through nonetheless in the broken English adopted, every so often it was so intractable as to prove quite amusing (or infuriating, depending on how you look at it)!
disappointing TV quality flick you need to skip
shescheating18 March 2009
The actress in the movie (I mean the young chick lady) is gorgeous,but out of that,there is really nothing to say.
this is the typical awful French movie you can image，they talk,talk,talk,endless dinner,food full of mouths,wine,dreary boring and superficial,and the sex scenes are very conventional to make you cry which is disappointed me most.usually French chick are very plead to expose their body to the camera.it reminds me another film called Lifeforce made about a double decade ago,in that movie Mathilda May(also has a role in this film) is almost fully nude from start to the end,at that time,Mathilda May looks so young and so perfect,she's like the most wonderful thing in the universe,and that is the movie you must have seen.
Back to this movie,if you are horny guys looking for young good looking girl,it's a good film.if you're looking for some really good story,it's a bad film,after all it's a bad film,so don't bother you to watch this film,120 minutes long is a torture.
this is the typical awful French movie you can image，they talk,talk,talk,endless dinner,food full of mouths,wine,dreary boring and superficial,and the sex scenes are very conventional to make you cry which is disappointed me most.usually French chick are very plead to expose their body to the camera.it reminds me another film called Lifeforce made about a double decade ago,in that movie Mathilda May(also has a role in this film) is almost fully nude from start to the end,at that time,Mathilda May looks so young and so perfect,she's like the most wonderful thing in the universe,and that is the movie you must have seen.
Back to this movie,if you are horny guys looking for young good looking girl,it's a good film.if you're looking for some really good story,it's a bad film,after all it's a bad film,so don't bother you to watch this film,120 minutes long is a torture.
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