Les Biches
by Claude Chabrol
List Price:
Our Price: $11.42
You Save: $8.56 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.09 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Jacqueline Sassard, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Nane Germon, Serge Bento, Stéphane AudranDirector: Claude Chabrol
Brand: Pathfinder Home ENT
Writer: Claude Chabrol
Cinematographer: Jean Rabier
Editor: Jacques Gaillard
Producer: André Génovès
Writer: Paul Gégauff
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Jack H. Harris Enterprises
DVD Reviews of Les Biches
DVD Review: intriguing chabrol, as usual ...
Summary: 4 Stars
Frederique (Audran, 35 in this film), is a wealthy woman trolling the streets of Paris looking for young women to seduce. Why (Sassard, 27 in this film) is a starving artist who earns a living drawing pictures of does (hence the film's title, which also means young women, so "Bad Girls" is a complete mistranslation) on sidewalks. They meet by accident, become friends and eventually lovers.
Frederique has a house in the south of France where she takes Why to solidify the relationship and achieve exclusivity with a beautiful young woman. What follows is a Garden of Eden sort of thing -- the Eve and Eve version -- until Adam shows up as Paul to gum up the works (Trintignant and Audran's real-life husband before Chabrol), an architect, who initially is quite smitten with Why (who wouldn't be?). Paul and Why have an affair that he treats as a casual fling, but she develops strong feelings for him while still in love with Frederique. Frederique also falls for Paul, whose socio-economic status is on the same level, and the feeling is mutual. They become lovers, which raises the conundrum how to push Why out of their lives because Frederique's passion for same gender relationships seems apparently to have been erased by Paul -- something that could have been worked out more fully, but then Audran married this guy in real life, which may have been Chabrol's idea of a joke ... Why won't be pushed, however, and the film has a tragic ending, which I won't reveal so as not to spoil the fun.
The ending is clever because it raises a host of important questions left to the viewer to decide, which is why (no pun intended) this is such an interesting film and so different from the tripe that Hollywood dishes out, where everything is delivered as a neatly wrapped package with no loose ends. Chabrol will have none of it because he knows that film stories will seem phony and artificial and superficial unless they mirror real life to a large extent, where resolution is not always achieved, things are seldom easy to predict in the long or even medium term, the law of unintended consequences rules more often than not, and we don't always live happily ever after as in fairy tales (again, no pun intended) like the Garden of Eden and such.
Bravo.
P.S. The DVD comes with voice-over commentary by a couple of critics, chatty, full of film-buff trivia, and largely beside the point. No need to turn it on.
Description of Les Biches
Directed by Claude Chabrol, Les Biches is a landmark in film history: its theme of bisexuality and upper-class decadence is surpassed only by its cool precision of cinematic style and exceptionally subtle performances. Socialite Frederique (Stephane Audran) encounters young student Why (Jacqueline Sassard) on the streets of Paris, seduces her and whisks her off to spend winter with the chic crowd of St. Tropez. When architect Paul (Jean Louis Trintignant) meets Why, he too charms her and comes between the two lovers. Frederiqe then seduces Paul out of jealousy, but finds herself feeling real love. Paul and Frederique invite Why to live together with them, resulting in a ménage a trios beset by jealousy, madness, and ultimately, murder.A high point from the middle career of French New Wave original Claude Chabrol, Les Biches is one of the director's tales of complicated, intertwined fates leading to horrifying ends. Chabrol's then-wife, Stephane Audran, plays a rich bisexual who picks up an impoverished young woman (Jacqueline Sassard) and takes her to her home in St. Tropez. There, much to her hostess's consternation, the visitor strikes up a romance with a handsome architect (Jean-Louis Trintignant), only to find that Audran's character is involved with him as well. The overlapping relationships grow full of rich mystery and dark possibility as the unwieldy situation begins to beg for a resolution. A study of class, desire, and compulsion, Les Biches has the hallmarks of Chabrol's streak of fascination with operatic fatalism. --Tom Keogh
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
White Material (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2011-04-12; DVD
Best price: $17.84
Price in other shops:
The Soft SkinRelease date: 1999-10-12; DVD
Best price: $37.78
The Complete Jean Vigo (À propos de Nice / Taris / Zéro de conduite / L'Atalante) (The Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-08-30; DVD
Best price: $18.55
Price in other shops:
Les cousins (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-09-20; DVD
Best price: $15.75
Price in other shops:
Les Bonnes FemmesKino International; Release date: 2000-09-26; DVD
Best price: $16.76
Price in other shops:
The Unfaithful Wife (La Femme infidèle)Pathfinder Home ENT; Release date: 2003-01-21; DVD
Best price: $10.05
Price in other shops:
La CérémonieImage Entertainment; Release date: 2004-07-27; DVD
Best price: $14.71
Price in other shops:
La RupturePathfinder Home ENT; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $9.86
Price in other shops:
Innocents with Dirty HandsPathfinder Home ENT; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $10.05
Price in other shops:
The ButcherPathfinder Home ENT; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $10.07
Price in other shops: