Les Biches Review

An eerie little drama in which Chabrol takes elements from Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and recasts them in the style of Hitchcock. A chic rich woman (Audran) picks up a starving pavement artist (Sassard) and takes her into her life, whereupon the girl (who gives her name as “Why”) transforms into Audran’s replacement. Less simplistic than the psycho movie version of the plot in Single White Female, this has Audran almost go along with Sassard’s usurpation of her life, fixated on her own lookalike in a way that suggests narcissism rather than lesbian interest. With lots of evocative, sinister touches and an omnipresent Hollywood-style melodrama score, this is a subtly disturbing and sexy piece, just mysterious enough to be worth several viewings to tease out its implications.