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19 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
How happy would I be with either. . ., 20 September 2007
9/10
Author: Chris Knipp from Berkeley, California

*** This comment may contain 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 her—because 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 driven—and 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.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The local weather girl, 21 March 2009
7/10
Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This comment may contain 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.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Placid, 23 January 2009
5/10
Author: gridoon2009

"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. (**)

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Old Man Look at my Life, 29 October 2008
6/10
Author: David Ferguson (fergusontx@gmail.com) from Dallas, Texas

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.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
both slyly self-aware and an enjoyably serious movie about ill-fated bourgeois, 26 August 2008
7/10
Author: JackGattanella from United States

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

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
SCOOP : It's Chabrol's best movie since "L'enfer" (1994)., 10 September 2007
7/10
Author: moimoichan6 (moimoichan6@yahoo.fr) from Paris, France

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
entertaining, 30 March 2009
8/10
Author: wvisser-leusden from Netherlands

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.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Low Octane Chabrol, But Still Worth A Watch, 25 November 2008
7/10
Author: Seamus2829 from United States

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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
disappointing TV quality flick you need to skip, 18 March 2009
2/10
Author: shescheating from Estonia

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.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Machanical and not that clever, 12 September 2008
6/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This comment may contain 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.

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