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)!
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)!