Aka: The Girls,
The Good girls
Directed By: Claude Chabrol
Starring: Bernadette Lafont, Clotilde Joano, Stephane Audran, Lucile Saint-Simon, and Pierre Bertin.
*warning some spoilers ahead*
Plot: Les Bonnes Femmes is about a group of shop girls. Their lives are boring and dull, and all they do at their jobs is sit around and wait for the day to end. They dream of real love and freedom but when one of them finds it, it comes at a cost.
Review: This is an odd movie. At first glance it looks like just another dull French new wave movie, but by the end it takes a shocking turn. I was stunned by the end of the movie, because it turns out the whole time the movie was acting in reverse of a murder. All in all what it boils down to is that the least likely girl is always the one to die.
The set up of the plot is the weirdest part. First it’s starts with two of the girls getting picked up by two sleazy yet funny guys. They then go to a nightclub and one of them leaves the party. The girl remaining goes off when the men where both try to sleep with her. She gets pissed and leaves. So- far -so- good. For about 45 minutes this kind of crap keeps on going on. Then they notice the stranger. By this point everything just goes out of whack.
The Tension starts to build right after the girls get to the zoo. In one of the best scenes of the picture, the girls are going to every animal and making fun of them by the time they reach the end they notice the stranger. It’s hard for me to believe how good some of parts of this movie are. This movie is like a breath of free air after all of the dumb thrillers I’ve seen recently. It’s just amazing. There something brilliant in almost every shot.
Sorry about that, I was losing myself, back to the review. The cast is also great. Bernadette Lafont is witty and sexy. She’s great as the party animal of the group. The way she plays it is so well done. On one hand you can’t stand her because she’s so flirty but by the end you feel sad for her as she has found no real love at the end of the movie. The next best actor in it is Stephane Audran; this is her first role for Chabrol. She’s really the only nice one of the girls, and she at least has more self worth. An interesting note is everyone in the movie wonders about her and what she does at night when no one’s watching. As it turns at she plays as an Italian signer in a nightclub. On a side note she just has one of those faces you could never forget. Truly they don’t have faces like her’s anymore. The last girl I want to bring up is Clotilde Joano who is the glue that keeps this movie together. She’s the love sick one, who never realizes that falling in love with a stranger, could lead to murder. She has the perfect puppy dog look on her face at all times.
This is the 4th Chabrol movie I have seen, and only by these movies I’ve already decided that he is one of the greatest French directors of all time. He pretty much the" French Hitchcock". Almost all of his films are well done new wave thrillers with odd twists that have inspired almost all thrillers after the 60’s. Every one of his movies is fresh and original, and the way he fools us with his plots is just amazing. They all start out odd and slow (sometimes boring), but by the half way point the changed into something different and interesting.
Overall: I had a lot of fun watching this movie. All in all it’s a great thriller that tricks you into thinking you’re watching a slow dull movie and then turns around last second to surprise you.
8/10 highly recommended Chabrol at his finest
In this video just watch how great Stephane Audran is.
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