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A GIRL CUT IN TWO Send This Review to a Friend
Claude Chabrol, who became renowned as a force in the French New Wave of the late 1950s and 1960s, still knows how to grip an audience. His “A Girl Cut in Two,” shown at the 2007 New York Film Festival and now getting as commercial release, is a sophisticated study of romantic manipulations and rivalries.
Ludivine Sagnier is attractive in the role of Gabrielle, a TV weather girl with a promising future. There are two men in her life. A married famous writer, Charles Saint-Denis, played by veteran actor François Berléand, wants her as his mistress. Her suitor wanting to marry her is the spoiled but wealthy young pharmaceutical heir, Paul (Benoît Magimel).
Chabrol, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cécile Maestre, follows the intricacies of dangerous developments with an awareness of class bias and the ways of the world of married men who insist upon having mistresses, then vainly become upset when a rival is in the picture. The heroine of this film is indeed someone emotionally cut in two. Chabrol’s film is entertaining and suspenseful, with excellent performances all around. An IFC Films release.
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