Last wet dream of an aging director, or an autumn of man's life?

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on September 5, 2010 at 10:37:28

The Girl Cut in Two comes with an eye-catching cover - a pretty girl, half-naked, in a seductive pose. That alone would not be enough though, as there are thousands of such covers, and one learns to ignore them. Here, however, we have the name of Claude Chabrol attached to it, and even though he is hardly one of the titans, his name still generates interest.

So, what could the 78 year director tell us about the girls that we still don't know? Turns out - not too much. Which would be a disaster for the movie, if not for other characters.

A young girl falls in love with a wise, epicurean and hedonistic older man, with tons of class and intelligence, and with more than enough money to support his aging wishes. Nothing new there. Hardly new is also his unwillingness to leave his comfortable life behind... something she discovers the hard way.

The other man, young, dashing, ultra-rich and infamous, stands no chance. Not at her age, anyway. How can a guy with a head full of hair compete with a receding gray hairline? As we all know, that just can't happen.

So in the conflict of wisdom versus testosterone we have an early winner, but the girl has no idea all this is just a game. And how could she? She is just a twenty-something parisienne, who undoubtedly has never heard any such story before.

Where the hell is all this going? If you say - towards bad ending - you are correct for this trivial answer is the only possibility.

Should we presume this story is somewhat personal for the director? Well, we can presume all we want, but important thing is - for all the story's triviality it still makes a moderately enjoyable movie. Both men are very well played, both have depth to their characters. There are good support actors too, and the girl... well, here I fully expect the sexual divide. I can bet my last ruble most women will dislike her, while men... I think we all know the answer. To be fair, I think the young actress actually gives a very good performance in this unforgiving role.

Going back to our discussion with tin - here we have another take on man's autumn. Not much in common between Charles Denis dit Charles Saint-Denis and Paul (Last Tango...), at least on surface. One is an overt pig, while the other seems to be too sophisticated... yet deep inside both are the same.

And perhaps this is the film's main message...

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