Claudio Carvalho In Lyon, the successful middle-aged writer Charles Saint-Denis (François Berléand) lives isolated with his wife Dona Saint-Denis (Valeria Cavalli) in a comfortable house in the country. His friend Capucine Jamet (Mathilda May) invites him to promote his latest novel in a talk show and in an autograph evening in a bookstore. In both occasions, the cynical Charles meets the witty and gorgeous TV weather-girl Gabrielle Aurore Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), whose mother Marie Deneige (Marie Bunel) works in the bookstore. Meanwhile, Gabrielle is promoted to host a show on television, and is wooed by the arrogant heir to a pharmaceutical fortune Paul André Claude Gaudens (Benoît Magimel), who is Charles' enemy and invites Gabrielle to have dinner with him.Charles invites Gabrielle to go with him to an auction and then they go to his apartment in Paris. The inexperienced Gabrielle has one night stand with him and falls in love with Charles, who teaches kinky sex to her. Then he brings Gabrielle to a men's club where she is perverted. Sooner Charles travels to London and forgets Gabrielle. Gabrielle is lovesick and depressed without strength to live. Paul insists in visiting her and finally Marie agrees. Paul and Gabrielle travel to Lisbon and Gabrielle accepts to marry him. She tells to Paul what Charles has done to her and after the wedding, the possessive Paul feels jealous with the experience of Gabrielle on bed. His jealousy leads to a tragedy and Gabrielle has to choose between keeping her intimacy with Charles or disclosing it in court."La Fille Coupée en Deux" is the penultimate film by Claude Chabrol with the story of a naive and gorgeous girl divided in two by the love for two scumbags. Ludivine Sagnier is impressively beautiful in this story that has elements of "Bitter Moon", with the cruelty and perversions of a man to a woman in love with him. Chabrol, as usual, does not disclose everything and the viewer that shall use his or her imagination to guess the sort of kink sex and perversions the gorgeous Gabrielle has been submitted since neither in the club nor in court the viewer sees or hears anything. However, it seems that when Charles tells that Gabrielle could be the last girl he brings to his apartment, he seems to be interested in her innocence and lack of experience. When she accepts to go to the club and have sex with his friends, he loses the interest on her. I only do not see where people have seen comedy or black comedy in the plot of this great film. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Uma Garota Dividida em Dois" ("A Girl Divided in Two")

MARIO GAUCI Updating (and transposing to France) an American cause célèbre of the early 1900s – already lavishly filmed in Hollywood as THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING (1955) – this is one of the few cases (like ALICE OR THE LAST ESCAPADE [1977], M. LE MAUDIT [1982; TV], QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY [1990], DR. M [1990], MADAME BOVARY [1991] and L'ENFER [1994]) where Chabrol attempted to put his stamp on material already dealt with by other hands. In this, he was not unlike Fritz Lang (who had remade two Jean Renoir films in the U.S.) and it seems no coincidence that the scenes in A GIRL CUT IN TWO depicting the elder male lead spending time with his equally jaded colleagues in an exclusive men's private club evoke memories of Lang's THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944).If the film itself is wholly predictable and certainly cannot be counted among Chabrol's very best efforts, this attests to the high standard of his oeuvre. Though the beguiling Ludivine Sagnier is at the centre of it, her character actually serves mainly to enlighten those of the (more interesting) couple of men she becomes involved with: successful middle-aged novelist Francois Berleand (who resembles a lot the way Werner Herzog looks today!) and the conceited yet volatile member of a fallen aristocracy played by Benoit Magimel. Incidentally, I could not help noticing how, for the most part, the various romantic neuroses involved, set as they are against an elitist backdrop, almost feel like your typical Woody Allen product! As such, the plot offers little surprises – that is, apart from an implied raw sexuality – but the solid craftsmanship, infused with Chabrol's trademark meticulousness and irony (as with THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING, the heroine ends up a sideshow attraction!), and a most able cast ensure one's interest never wavers throughout.Unfortunately, the copy I acquired of this film was supplied with one of the worst set of subtitles I have ever encountered – though the sense of what was being said generally came through nonetheless in the broken English adopted, every so often it was so intractable as to prove quite amusing (or infuriating, depending on how you look at it)!

dbdumonteil The two most honest comments on this Chabrol's poor effort are by Writers Reign's and Hcaruso's.But to be honest is not rewarding cause their insightful essays were mostly deemed "non useful".To write that "La Fille Coupée En Deux" is a near scene -for- scene ripoff is to state the obvious:the great Richard Fleischer's "the girl on the red velvet swing"(1955) had already told the story in a much better way.People who dismiss the two comments I mention above should watch it,then decide if they are wrong.I was in my car in the summer of 2007 when I heard a Chabrol interview on the radio.He was savoring Foie Gras on toast while talking about his new movie.He did not mention Richard Fleischer although in an American interview (reproduced by Jdcopp) he said he knew and he liked the movie:but he certainly thought that the French audience was not learned enough to know the American director or maybe he wanted to avoid any comparison.For that matter,he was right.Chabrol has been making movies for years ,and I have probably seen more of his works than any other French director,with the exception of Julien Duvivier.To think that around 1970,he was my favorite FRench director;at the time ,his actors were the Creme De LA Creme :Michel Bouquet,Stephane Audran,Jean Yanne,Michel Piccoli...Not that FRançois Berléand is a bad actor:he's simply not handsome enough to portray this greybeard -whereas James Mason...- :it takes a lot of imagination to believe that Ludivine Seignier is crazy about him.I have never liked Benoit Magimel who anyway is miscast as a playboy (Farley Granger he is absolutely not).It's supporting actress Caroline Sihol who saves the end of the movie with her terrifying portrayal of an over possessive mother who tells the heroine she is not one of them ,that is to say one of the bourgeoisie ,Chabrol's favorite target: this is the only Chabrolesque touch ,which reminds me of "La Rupture" (1970) in which Stephane Audran was an intruder too .As for the two final scenes (Chabrol's and Fleischer's),Joan Collins swinging to the moon is much more memorable than Chabrol's equivalent ,which also steals the "show " idea from the 1955 work.To make the heroine a weather girl is not a good idea either ,for ,in France ,these persons are often looked upon as "stars" , whereas Fleischer's babe was a music hall dancer,not an honorable job at the time .Chabrol's passion for gastronomy which shows in ALL his movies is here more present than ever.They do not stop eating or drinking champagne except when they make love,drive or kill.And even....

Massimo Pigliucci 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.