A Girl Cut in Two (2007)

A black comedy centered around a TV weather girl and the two very different men who pursue her.

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Cécile Maistre (scenario, adaptation and dialogue), Claude Chabrol (scenario, adaptation and dialogue)

Stars:

Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ludivine Sagnier	...	Gabrielle Aurore Deneige
Benoît Magimel	...	Paul André Claude Gaudens
François Berléand	...	Charles Denis dit Charles Saint-Denis
Mathilda May	...	Capucine Jamet
Caroline Silhol	...	Geneviève Gaudens
Marie Bunel	...	Marie Deneige
Valeria Cavalli	...	Dona Saint-Denis (as Valéria Cavalli)
Etienne Chicot	...	Denis Deneige
Edouard Baer	...	Edouard, l'acteur interviewé
Jean-Marie Winling	...	Gérard Briançon
Didier Bénureau	...	Philippe Le Riou
Thomas Chabrol	...	Maître Stéphane Lorbach
Charley Fouquet	...	Eléonore Gaudens
Hubert Saint-Macary	...	Bernard Violet (as Hubert Saint Macary)
Jérémie Chaplain

Storyline

Gabrielle is a young woman with a future: she's the weather girl on a local TV station destined to a rapid promotion. She's self-confident and self-possessed. In Lyon, on successive days, she meets two men of high status: Charles, a middle-aged writer, and Paul, the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. Both are attracted to her and both have flaws immediately evident: Charles, who is married, can be dismissive; Paul can be possessive and threatening. To the dismay of one, Gabrielle chooses the other. How will each man handle her choice, and after she falls in love, can she sustain her personal strength?

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Plot Keywords:

love | older man younger woman relationship | woman in bed | rich man | mistress | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was the first time Claude Chabrol wrote a screenplay with Cécile Maistre, his first assistant. They were attracted to the story of Stanford White and Evelyn Nesbit, but transposed it into a contemporary setting.

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Quotes

Gabrielle Aurore Deneige: What do you do for a living?
Paul André Claude Gaudens: I live.

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Soundtracks

Elle A Au Fond Des Yeux
Performed by Julien Clerc
Music by Maurice Vallet
Lyrics by Julien Clerc
(C) 1972 Les editions Cracelles, S.A. / Editions et Productions Sidonie, S.A.
Avec l'autorisation des Editions et Productions Sidonie, S.A. and EMI Music Publishing (France), S.A.
(P) 1972 EMI Music (France) - avec l'aimable autorisation de EMI Music (France)

User Reviews

SCOOP : It's Chabrol's best movie since "L'enfer" (1994).

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Wild Bunch [France]

Country:

France Germany

Language:

French

Release Date:

8 August 2007 (France)

Also Known As:

A Girl Cut in Two

Filming Locations:

La Renaissance, Rive-de-Gier, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,658, 17 August 2008

Gross USA:

$409,658

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,488,537

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alicéléo, Alicéléo Cinéma, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby SR DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1