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)

Critics 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.

74%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 87

37%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 2,717
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Movie Info

A television weatherwoman is pursued simultaneously by a spoiled pharmaceutical heir and a successful -- but much older -- writer in director Claude Chabrol's blackly comic tale of romance and class differences. Gabrielle Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier) has a high-profile job detailing the forecast on French TV. Yet despite Gabrielle's staunch work ethic, she values her privacy over her professional career and lives in a modest house with her aging mother (Marie Bunel). One day, renowned author Charles Saint-Denis (François Berléand) is interviewed at the television station where Gabrielle works, and the two feel an instant, powerful connection. Later, at a book signing, the pair continues to flirt despite the presence of entitled rich kid Paul Gaudens (Benoît Magimel) -- who openly despises the writer and longs to claim Gabrielle as his own. Despite the fact that Charles is still happily married to his wife of 25 years (Valeria Cavalli), with whom he has set up home in a posh ultra-modern estate in the countryside, he and Gabrielle share an intimate afternoon at the author's nearby pied-à-terre. Later, as the potentially psychotic Paul steps up his pursuit of Gabrielle, the girl begins to question whether either of her suitors is pure in his intentions.

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Cast

Ludivine Sagnier
as Gabrielle Aurore Deneige
Benoît Magimel
as Paul André Claude Gaudens
Mathilda May
as Capucine Jamet
Caroline Sihol
as Geneviève Gaudens
François Berléand
as Charles Denis
Marie Bunel
as Marie Deneige
Valeria Cavalli
as Dona Saint-Denis
Etienne Chicot
as Denis Deneige
Thomas Chabrol
as Stéphane Lorbach
Jean-Marie Winling
as Gérard Briançon
Didier Benureau
as Philippe Le Riou
Édouard Baer
as Edouard
Jeremie Chaplain
Clémence Bretécher
as Joséphine Gaudens
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Critic Reviews for La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)

All Critics (87) | Top Critics (26)

  • Though the performances are all first-rate, the film is let down by weak characterisation. Still, it's enjoyable, if not exceptional.

    May 28, 2009 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

    Cosmo Landesman

    Times (UK)
    Top Critic

  • One's final impression is that aging legends make unreliable puppet-masters. And that it's all too easy for a desirable young actress to be left dangling in mid-air.

    May 22, 2009 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

    Charlotte O'Sullivan

    London Evening Standard
    Top Critic

  • This is one of Chabrol's most elegant, acerbic and heartfelt entertainments in years.

    May 22, 2009 | Rating: 4/6 | Full Review…

    Wally Hammond

    Time Out
    Top Critic

  • The performances drip with cliché, while the narrative is all over the place: plot developments are either clumsily telegraphed or given the flimsiest of dramatic explanation.

    May 22, 2009 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

    Ed Potton

    Times (UK)
    Top Critic

  • With elegance and despatch, veteran new wave master Claude Chabrol has brought off his most enjoyable film for some time.

    May 22, 2009 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

    Peter Bradshaw

    Guardian
    Top Critic

  • Chabrol may be one of the great survivors of the New Wave, but this is an old man's film.

    May 22, 2009 | Rating: 2/5

    Matt Bochenski

    Little White Lies
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (87)

Audience Reviews for La Fille Coupée en Deux (The Girl Cut in Two) (A Girl Cut in Two)

  • Jan 13, 2016
    Lackluster love triangle tragedy in which almost nothing works. Which will an attractive, upwardly bound weathergirl choose, the old writer jackass or the young spoiled jackass? When the girl is this airheaded and indescerning about jumping into bed, I didn't even care. The rivalry that supposedly already exists between the men is just as flimsy and ineffectual. Claude Chabrol has made some provocative examinations of relationships - obsessive jealousy in L'Enfer for example - but everything staged here is extremely limp. That includes insinuations of kinky sex with the old guy and maybe his friends, nothing is ever made clear but it's just another example of the director working far too timidly with this material. The overly obvious visual metaphor to end the film makes for an appropriate ham-fisted finale to this tripe.
    Doctor S Super Reviewer
  • Jan 20, 2011
    I have to say that I am fan of Claude Chabrol and that this movie wasn't his best... but that doesn't mean it was bad, because his standards are well above the average! The story revolves around two men who like a single young woman, local weather girl Gabrielle Deneige (Snow). She lives with her mother, who works in a little bookstore. Charles Saint-Denis is a famed author who has just written a new book and he seems to hate the public eye and lives in the countryside of Lyon with his wife. At a party after a television interview about his new novel, Charles first spies the young Gabrielle and later, after a little flirting, he gives her a copy of his book and an invitation for her to attend an auction with him. She agrees... A young man, local socialite and rich "kid" Paul Gaudens, invites Gabrielle to dinner with him and she agrees... and the triangle of tragic people who will create tragic events starts at that moment... and the "wheels" never stoped turning! Very focused acting of François Berléand as Charles and very convincing Gabrielle played by Ludivine Sagnier under the secure directorship of Claude Chabrol made this movie very pleasant to watch and analyse! But the ending spoiled the enjoyment... it could be much better!
    Panta O Super Reviewer
  • Nov 06, 2010
    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.
    Lewis C Super Reviewer
  • Nov 16, 2009
    french drama following a writer, his affair with a pretty upand coming weather girl, and another wealthy bachelor who takes a dislike to writer and plays for her affections, a typically fench story and setting, but entertaining to watch, francois berleand as the writer does good stuff here, and ludivine sagnier as the girl caught in middle is exelent,
    scott g Super Reviewer
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