Stéphane Audran died last march 27, 2018. She was the fetish actress of director Claude Chabrol, and his wife since 1964. As an homage to her, I reviewed this movie again today.Stéphane Audran was awarded the Best Actress prize of 1968 in the Berlin Film Festival, for this movie. The film was cut in different markets from the original 104 minutes to 99, 97 (in USA for a PG rated VHS 1980 release), and even 88 minutes.«After seven years of rather paltry stuff, Claude Chabrol re-established his reputation with this elegantly enacted, cool, callous, and witty bisexual ménage-à-trois. It was also the first film in which Stéphane Audran (Mrs. Chabrol since 1964) was given a role worthy of her subtle expressiveness.» - Bloomsbury's Video Guide.«This movie "proves that you can make a very sexy movie with practically no nude or copulation scenes. Yet the underlying sex drive is steamy and erotic.» - The X-Rated Videotape Guide, vol. II.«1967 was the year of lesbianism in French cinema. Two films were turned with just a few months between them: "Les biches" by Claude Chabrol, with an original script, and "La Religieuse" by Jacques Rivette, upon Diderot's novel. Chabrol admits: "It was explosive for it's time. For the first time you were seeing a girl «taking» another girl... Be it the scene of the bathtub, or Stéphane's stripping, I never photographed below the navel: I always cut right in time! After all, both my does fell in love with a boy, and the most rich «won» him, what, as far as I saw it, was more immoral than a special relationship. Besides, to tell you the truth, lesbianism doesn't attract me; it only interests me as an abnormality. If a woman wants to have children, that is not the best way to achieve it..."» - Chabrol cited by Frank Deeth, "Sapho c'qui faut! Quand les biches envahissent l'écran", in "Le Crapouillot", nº 23, December 1972.The original title sends a complex message. "Les biches" (French for female doe, the sweet animal a girl is drawing on the pavement when we first meet her character) is also French slang for "girls" in the way the British used to refer to young women as "birds", and the Americans as "chicks" or "foxes", with no derogatory intention. The Portuguese title (when the lesbian word was taboo), "As Rivais" erases the essential subject of the story, emphasizing the threesome of the story. The American title, "Bad Girls" adds an ethical judgement on the two women's behaviour that is far from what we are told about their characters. Claude Chabrol was an upper-middle-class man, a bourgeois, and though he did not subscribe to the leftist agendas current in France in the 1960s, he was a permanent critic of the upper classes hypocrisy and disdain for the others. Some reviewers have pointed that the end of the movie represents the victory of the rich girl over the poor girl in their dispute for the man - therefore representing the usual, realistic triumph of the rich and powerful. Having seen many of Chabrol's films, I agree that in this one he was sending that message too, that we mostly missed for the blatant dare of showing, with taste but explicitly, love among women.

Claude Chabrol 1968 film "Les Biches" marked a turn for the director after a decade, or so, after breaking into movies. Unlike other French film makers, Chabrol showed he was more interested in style over politics. The structure of this film seems mapped out carefully as there is no spontaneous moment in the film. Chabrol calculated how he wanted to present the story in his own terms. The result is a film that was ahead of its times in many aspects, perhaps in the frankness the director treats with the subject at the center of the story.Unfortunately, we saw the film recently in the DVD transfer, which pales in comparison with the original way we saw on the big screen. Since the format is not the "letterbox" format, most scenes show only half of the actors faces. This is a film that cries for a better transfer because of the elegant lines Mr. Chabrol created for the film.The film is divided in three chapters involving the three principals of the story. Frederique, a rich bored woman wants the beautiful young street painter she meets on one of the bridges over the Seine. It's clear from the beginning what Frederique's real intentions really are. The glances Frederique gives the young woman, "Why", as she has named her, have an explicit connotation hard to ignore by this gorgeous creature.Things begin to change as Frederique and Why arrive at the Saint Tropez house. It's winter, so the place is empty. When the young architect, Paul Thomas, comes to a party at Frederique's he only has eyes for Why, but Frederique succeeds in snaring him. Why, in turn will begin impersonating Frederique in order to get Paul.The main strength in the film is the superior acting Chabrol got out of all his principals. Stephane Audran made an extraordinary contribution with her Frederique. Ms. Audran caught the soul of this woman and stole the film. The gorgeous Jacqueline Sassard appears as Why, in a role that showed her to be up to the challenge her co-star presented for the actress playing opposite her. Jean-Louis Trintignant is the less interesting of the principals because his character is an enigma. Comic relief come in the way of Henri Attal and Dominique Zardi, a gay couple staying at Frederique's home."Les Biches" is a film to watch to see a master like Claude Chabrol doing great work.

Although I've usually enjoyed Chabrol's film and his (then-wife's) Stephane Audran's ice-cool looks, this is down the ho-hum trail from beginning to end (picking up a bit in the middle). Trintignant is his usual passive self and Jacquelline Sassard is strange and disturbing-looking with no apparent acting talent.A 3 out of 10. Best performance = S. Audran. If this is supposed to be erotic, mysterious, and dark - it missed the mark by a mile. Beautiful French locales with extra supporting characters who serve no real purpose. Don't waste your time unless you're really a Chabrol junkie. Have wanted to see this for years...what a pity.

Many films uses the "Menage a Trois" element to cause disturbances in the relationship between three people. "Les Biches" uses this device to completely destroy its three characters. A perfect psychological film, "Les Biches" is the ONLY film that I know where it doesn't use Menage a Trois as a facade, but allows the film to explore its themes of Jealousy and Obsession to a sensual and extremely disturbing effect. Not even Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" used the device to this extent. This film is suited for people who loves to watch movies that will make us think, rather than movies that tells us what to think. Truly a hypnotic character study on physical and spiritual obsession. Kudos to Chabrol, his lovely wife Stephane Aubran, cinematographer Jean Rabier, and the sensuous Jacqueline Sassard for their specific roles in creating a chilling masterpiece.