La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)2008
La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two) (2008)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Nouvelle Vague master Claude Chabrol balances subtle stabs of humor and biting class criticism to explore a love story and the seedier side of the haute bourgeois.
La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two) Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Gabrielle Aurore Deneige
as Paul André Claude Gaudens
as Capucine Jamet
as Geneviève Gaudens
as Charles Denis
as Marie Deneige
as Dona Saint-Denis
as Denis Deneige
as Stéphane Lorbach
as Gérard Briançon
as Philippe Le Riou
as Edouard
as Joséphine Gaudens
News & Interviews for La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)
Critic Reviews for La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)
All Critics (87) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (23) | DVD (2)
This is one of Chabrol's most elegant, acerbic and heartfelt entertainments in years.
Claude Chabrol's capacity to make shopworn material seem almost new is especially evident in this 2007 drama.
While not a classic, this is a pleasantly disturbing, nominally voyeuristic romp in the territory Chabrol knows best.
Spectacularly assured, A Girl Cut in Two keeps you off-balance as it establishes a world where every conversation is a flirtation, and trouble and heartbreak sneak in on little cat feet when no one's looking.
More than a century later, this is still a juicy story, and the actors don't back away from its more hysterical flourishes.
Chabrol is a past master at visual storytelling and a stiletto wit.
Audience Reviews for La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)
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.
Super Reviewer
A most infuriating film by a famous director. Does Chabrol hate women as much as this indicates? Or is this some sort of Gallic humor that doesn't translate well? A young, somewhat naive woman, Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier) is pursued by two equally despicable characters. Charles (Francois Berleand) is a worldly, famous author who wins her heart and then uses and abuses her. Paul (Benoit Magimel) is a member of the idle rich, a spoiled brat intent on getting his way, no matter what. That Gabrielle was forced to choose either of these losers and suffer greatly no matter which way she chose did not fit with her image as a successful TV journalist on the way up. This is France. This is Paris. Either choose to show us the depravity, or give us hearts and flowers. This was totally unacceptable, as Chabrol gave us neither. He also chose to give us no one with whom the audience could identify or view with any sympathy. Beautiful scenery and fine acting. The craft is unmistakable. For that, I give it three stars. This viewer just hated the story and what it says about this particular woman, and by extension, women in general.
Super Reviewer
A thriller inspired by the infamous, murderous New York love triangle between Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Thaw and Stanford White. The story takes place in modern-day France: Ludivine Saigner plays the lead, a lovely weather girl, Francois Berleand is the famous, aging writer who begins an affair with her, and Benoit Magimel is the psychologically unstable -young-millionaire who wants to marry her. These superbly-written and overall unpleasant characters drift between the evil and the ingenue with slyness. Selfishness and immorality abound, everyone takes advantage of everyone, and approches everyone for reasons very different from love. So all in all, as I watched, I knew all three characters were bound for something tragic. Chabrol is a skilled, competent filmmaker, and his film never falls flat, never bores, it keeps a steady pace and a consistent veil of suspense and uncertainty. To put it simply, it is a regular Hitchcock, with less censorship limitations. While it isn't an extraordinary film it is a good thriller with some black comedy moments. And what's best, it is a non-cop thriller; therefore it has less opportunities to be commonplace, and less pressure put on a typical police figure. All the interaction within La fille coupée... takes place in a very (un)civic and unlawful context in which unbridled sexual and emotional promiscuity thrives, not just between the members of the "love" triangle but between them and their immediate surroundings. Everyone in this film very much wants to be uncompromisingly seduced and is more than willing to dispose after using. So, there's not much left to say... a thriller about bad things that happen to people of questionable morale (there are no bad guys here!)
Super Reviewer
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