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A Girl Cut in Two
She loved not wisely and not all that well, either
2007
Review: October 24, 2008
Director: Claude Chabrol
Starring: Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand
Up to you, might be nice.
THE SETUP:
Young woman becomes involved with two men, one slightly more unstable than the other.
DISCUSSION:
This was one of those French thrillers that the American trailer tries overtime to sell as though something thrilling happens in it, when in reality it’s all talk and slight intimations of wrongdoing. On the other hand, it ends up being a lot richer and more affecting than the majority of more “thrilling” thrillers. This had lingered in theaters here for a while, and was one of those things that had gotten pretty good reviews although no one could really sum up why, so anyway, one Sunday afternoon with nothing to do I packed off to see it.
So there’s this acclaimed French author Charles St. Denis, who has a wife, an assistant who may or may not be sleeping with him—I suspect she did in the past—and remains free to court whomever he wants. We then meet main character Gabrielle, a young woman of 23 who is the weatherperson on a television channel, and appears destined for promotion, as everyone finds her smart and beautiful. Her mother owns a bookstore where Charles is giving a reading. He meets Gabrielle and is charmed—and it seems the feeling is mutual. He tells her to meet him at this auction the next day. Then this rich fellow with a hairstyle that pays tribute to the prime earning years of Duran Duran pulls up. He comes in and makes a bit of a scene, being really snide and condescending to Charles.
Turns out this guy is Paul Gaudens, of Gaudens Labs, a pharmaceutical company. He notices Gabrielle as well, and takes her to dinner. She is surprised at going to such a nice restaurant, but afterward tells him that he’s going too fast and just to back off.
Then Gabrielle meets Charles at the auction. He buys something for 2,000 Euros, which turns out to be a rare erotic drawing. He gives it to her. They repair to his apartment in town [the name on the buzzer is “Paradis”] where they have sex, and he tells her that she could be the last one he brings there. Then he suddenly turns cold and tells her she’s going too fast.
A few days pass and she can’t get ahold of Charles. Paul shows up at the studio with flowers, and while she’s talking to him, flowers from Charles arrive—and she RUNS out. So it’s clear which one has a hold on her erotic imagination. Charles takes her to what seems sort of like a very refined, high-level sex club [who knew?], intending to do something special for her birthday—although we don’t find out what until the end of the movie.
SPOILERS > > >
So the thing goes on a while with Gabrielle being pursued by Paul, but quite obviously being totally wrapped up with Charles. Her intense attraction to Charles is never fully explained or completely convincing, but you just have to accept it. We find out that there are some scandalous incidents in Paul’s past, involving him kidnapping some 9-year-old girls, and not just to play Chutes and Ladders—although I guess it depends what you mean by that. After the Literary Sex Club incident, Charles abruptly leaves town and changes the lock on “Paradis.” His wife says, before he goes “I won’t ask [where you’re going]… you’ll tell me as you go.”
Gabrielle becomes “like a zombie,” and her career is suffering. Her mother arranges for Paul to come over, and this results in her offering to MARRY him. She says she’ll marry him and completely forget Charles. And he believes it. They get married, and Gabrielle is drawn into the wealthy Gaudens family, who ultimately don’t really love her all that much.
Hey, here’s where I tell you the ending! Because it’s interesting and you know as well as I most people reading this aren’t going to watch the movie. Nevertheless, if you might want to see it—stop, I beg of you, STOP! Or really just skip to after the spoilers are over.
So Charles shows up at the marriage to tell her that Paul is unstable, which is hardly news, and by the way Gabrielle isn’t exactly a lock to win Miss Mental Health this year. She tells him that she will love no one but him. Then she marries Paul!
Like two minutes pass and she’s miserable again, and Paul can tell. Then Charles is getting an award on stage, Paul goes up, and shoots him! He says “I have killed the man who corrupted my wife,” and you know, he has a point. Oh, and by the way, what happened at the Literary Sex Club [I just love saying that] is that Charles watched Gabrielle have sex with several men.
Now a fairly long little epilogue where it feels like we’re diverting from the real story, although it kind of turns out to BE the story. The Gaudens family want Gabrielle to testify against Charles in order to reduce Paul’s sentence. They work out a deal in which she’ll get a settlement, and of course Gabrielle is too young, sincere and stupid to engage her own lawyer. She won’t testify against Charles—she WON’T! So she simply tells the truth, which is more than she wanted to do anyway, and the Gaudens matriarch takes great pleasure in telling her that she won’t get a dime. Her magician uncle shows up out of nowhere to deliver a highly symbolic finish: Gabrielle indeed gets sawed in two. She appears smiling on stage, the image freezes, and that’s the end.
Not quite what we expected, huh? Gabrielle loved not wisely and not really all that well, she was young and naïve, just pursuing whatever youthful impulses she had—an let’s not neglect that a father for her is nowhere to be found—and she ends up getting massively screwed. I don’t think I mentioned that her career was also seriously set back by her lack of attention to it during the above proceedings. So the main impact of the movie—and it is fairly potent—comes from the unexpected but sadly believable last-minute turn it takes away from the you-go-girl, you-really-CAN-have-it-all narrative we’ve been conditioned to expect into something quite different. This is how it plays in the States… it’s impossible for me to know what context this is viewed under in France. She was free, youthful and capricious—and she fucked herself pretty badly. Beware, young lovers!
< < < SPOILERS END
I always tend to find these slow, talky French things rewarding. They’re consistently engaging, if very low-key, and even if they don’t raise many pulses during the proceedings, there tends to be much more rich flavor to savor for quite some time afterward. This one was intriguing while it went on, and my affection for it grew more and more the further I got from it. Those who make an effort to see it will unlikely be entirely sorry.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Probably, if you like those low-key French things, but be aware, it is VERY low-key.
