WHY is 'Gabrielle' pretending to be French???!!!

She thought it would make her seem more interesting. She thought of herself as being very plain, so an accent would make her stand out in a crowd. She probably still used it at the end just because she was used to it (and speaking with a fake accent can be fun).

I'd say it's more of a thematic trait of the film than a personal trait of the character. She represents a coquettish, sexualized femininity that is stereotyped as the "innocent sexy French girl." It's a vague cultural stereotype with origins, I imagine, in the liberal sexual attitudes of the French. The film turns it on its head by suggesting that the stereotype of the "innocent sexy French girl" (or Dutch girl, or Swedish, any country that is stereotyped as having sexy women) is something that is created in the minds of men, for their benefit. She acts less intelligent than she really is, she pretends to be manipulated while actually being the manipulator, and her french accent is a farce. I think it's a send-up of a movie character "type", the seductress.

To put it simply: she is the Tim Robbins character's fantasy woman, quite literally. She is not what she appears to be.

I think she answers the question herself. "It passes the time". She's a parody. This movie shows the bittersweet (mostly bitter) aspects of human nature. Lila was a good person, with a good heart, and both of the men in her life forsake her for Gabrielle, who just sort of gets off on toying with people, because she has nothing better to do. Isn't that typical? I thought it was. This movie is ridiculously poignant! Charlie Kaufman does it again!

Personally, I think it's got to do with Puff's critique on humanity. He says (and goes on to demonstrate) that it's plagued with duplicity and lying. Gabrielle is the ultimate demonstration of that, being the only character to consistently and completely uphold a lie.

You can also look at it from a perspective not so bluntly addressed in the movie: the need for companionship and acceptance. I think Gabrielle craved attention, and the accent made her stand out enough to get attention. It's also why she kept it at the end: She needs to maintain her farce, the accent, to keep Puff from becoming distracted by other women. She needs to stay distinct and unique in his mind.

The last poster was the closest to my idea on it.

She represents how all of us change who we really are to either get what we want out of civilisation or to be what we think people want us to be or to be what we think we are supposed to be.

I interpreted the film as a dramatisation of Freud's 'Civilisation and its Discontents', a book in which he outlines the concept of sublimation. Puff represents the pure instinctual being and Dr Bronfman, at the opposite end of the scale, is an over-civilised repressed personality. In Freud's theory, eroticism is the sublimated (or civilised) form of the instinct to have animalistic sex. For example, the 'civilised' person undertakes foreplay, spends time beutifying themselves for their partner, or talks dirty - sight and sound (as the more civilised senses) play a big part in eroticism. I thought that Gabrielle was meant to represent this eroticism - with her sexy PJ's, fake French accent and sheer eagerness to please - and act as a contrast to Puff's unsublimated sexuality. There is loads in this film to support a Freudian (or Marcusian) interpretation but that is perhaps a dull way to discuss it. Above all else i found it really funny!

Good eve ning lay dees and gen tel men

Asking that question implies you missed quite a whole lot of the movie.

I think whitevelvetsky put it really well thou. Its so she seems more interesting. Also I too thought it was sad they ended up with her but I'm sure as with Nathan its not gonna last a long time. As they said "Like father, like son" Why did picasso become a painter?