“She has a perfect center of gravity,” a comic supporting
character says coyly and humorously early in Les Biches. The line represents
the film in a nutshell: sexy, dirty and intellectual. The premise of Claude
Chabrol’s film sounds tawdry: a story of lesbian lovers torn apart by a man who
catches both of their attention. But Chabrol handles the film in far too
sophisticated and intelligent ways for it to ever devolve into anything truly
lurid. The film is far more concerned with human nature and human behavior and
observes it through beautiful pastel cinematography and lilting camerawork. The
selfish and self-serious Frédérique (Stéphane Audran) is drawn to a struggling artist
drawing does (“les biches” in French) on the streets of Paris. The artist
identifies only as “Why” (Jacqueline Sassard), and the sexually inexperienced
young girl is seduced by Frédérique. Frédérique brings Why to her summer home
in Saint Tropez where at a party they meet Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and
both fall in love with him. Chabrol hooks us with the sexiness and the naughty
suggestion and this engrosses us and leads us to observe and question the
characters’ actions more seriously. The
last third of the film loses some of this delicate balance (entering into out-and-out sensationalism), but it also does it
with continued ambiguity and casual sensuousness, remaining both enticing and
intently meditative.
Grade: B+
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