La fille coupée en deux

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.

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.

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 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.

"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. (**)