Summary
Frédérique, a wealthy heiress, befriends a young woman, a street artist
named Why, and invites her to stay at her villa in the South of France. There, at
a dinner party, Why meets a young architect, Paul, whom she is easily seduced by.
Jealous, Frédérique in turn seduces Paul, but the two fall in love.
Realising that she too is in love with Paul, Why clings to them both, hurt but unable
to leave them….
Review
Les Biches is one of Claude Chabrol’s most intense and aesthetically pleasing
films, a riveting melange of traditional love triangle and subtly dark thriller.
Fans of Chabrol’s work will notice strong similarities with his earlier film, Les
Cousins, which mirrors this film in a number of imporant ways.
As in all of Chabrol’s
films, nothing is quite what it initially seems. Beneath what appears to be a conventional
bourgeois drama, dark undercurrents can be discerned. Three solitary characters
are drawn together by forces they cannot control, the tension gradually building to a
crescendo as the sexual tensions between them direct them towards the film’s shocking
conclusion.
This is first and
foremost a film about seduction. The opening sequence, with the mesmerising
panoramic views of Paris, drenched in golden sunlight, seduces the audience, and in the
first scene, a beautiful woman seduces an impoverished street artist. From then
on, these two characters indulge in a game of seduction which starts innocently enough
but which quickly acquires a dangerous momentum of its own.
All the time, we,
the audience, are seduced by the beautiful cinematography, the captivating, sensual performances,
most notably from the Sphinx-like Stéphane Audran, and Chabrol’s masterful
direction. This is a deliciously seductive work, but one which is also profoundly
disturbing.
© James Travers 2002
For more on Claude Chabrol see:
The life of Claude Chabrol
Le Beau Serge
Les Cousins
Le Boucher
Que la bête meure
La Cérémonie
Buy films by Claude Chabrol
More about the French New Wave
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