MovieChat Forums > La fille coupée en deux (2007) Discussion > The antipathy from Paul to Charles!

The antipathy from Paul to Charles!


Before Paul had known Gabrille , He (Paul) already hated Charles. But at no time nobody says the because, there is only one mention of Charles to his wife and Capucine (in the restaurant) from a "dark affaire" , about a girl kidnapped by Paul years ago , but in this case It would explain antipathy from Charles to Paul but not vice versa.

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This bothered me too. Did both of us miss something? Was Paul a wannabe writer, or was it something else--a woman? money? land? His mother and sisters know of his antipathy in that first scene in their ancestral home, and they all seem on edge in the restaurant scene where Charles and his agent and wife have accidentally usurped Paul's family's usual table. In confronting Charles in that scene, Paul alludes to Charles having a history of encroaching on his territory. Of course he means Gabrielle, but I think he also means someone or something even earlier.

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This whole story was lifted from a true story from the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century: Evelyn Nesbitt, her husband, Harry Thaw, and, her former lover, the architect, Sanford White. It WAS a disturbing story. Thaw had been obsessed with the womanizing Sanford White and used Evelyn to get to White. The Thaws also used Evelyn's testimony to help Thaw gain a reduced sentence. Evelyn endured marathon court appearances, something her experience as a model trained her for.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

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This whole story was lifted from a true story from the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century: Evelyn Nesbitt, her husband, Harry Thaw, and, her former lover, the architect, Sanford White. It WAS a disturbing story. Thaw had been obsessed with the womanizing Sanford White and used Evelyn to get to White. The Thaws also used Evelyn's testimony to help Thaw gain a reduced sentence. Evelyn endured marathon court appearances; long sessions without breaking for meals prepared her for this.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

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I don't know if you're right in saying "This whole story was lifted from a true story from the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century: Evelyn Nesbitt, her husband, Harry Thaw, and, her former lover, the architect, Sanford White." but it explains what I thought wrong with the film's plot- we'll leave aside its other faults- why Gabrielle was willing to spend any time with either of the male leads. It would be unerstandable at the turn of the nineteenth century when women were usually economically dependent on men but it is proposterous as a contemporary scenario.

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After I saw the film, during which I was reminded of Evelyn Nesbitt/Harry Thaw/Sanford White triangle, I read in the newspaper that it was indeed the inspiration for La Fille coupée en deux. Here is one article in the "World Socialist Website"(!) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/girl-d29.shtml

Yours is an interesting view on "why Gabrielle was willing to spend any time with either of the male leads" seemed more of a turn-of-the 20th-century issue. Evelyn Nesbitt's mother was a scary lady. She operated a boarding house in Philadelphia, allowing her young, pretty daughter, Evelyn, to collect rent from the boarders. She also turned her cheek during the entire Sanford White episode as Mr. White paid for Evelyn's brother's schooling at an expensive school. He also paid for Evelyn's schooling for a couple of semesters. Her classmates were fascinated with her. Imagine the life experience she had had by then!

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

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The White-Nesbit-Thaw connexion also turns up in Ragtime. There's a good book by one of White's direct descendants: Suzannah Lessard: The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family. I'm pleased to find what I thought about Gabrielle's psychology in the film- indeed, the assumptions about relations between men and women and sexuality- is confirmed.

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You know, reading Ragtime is how I learned about this history!

A new biography about Evelyn Nesbitt is available now. When I saw La Fille coupée en deux soon after finishing the book, I caught the story right away.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

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You're joking, of course. Women are emotionally dependent on men, not economically dependent upon them. Gabrielle economically dependent on either Paul or Charles? I don't think so.

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Paul didn't like Charles because Charles was a pretentious prick and Paul knew it. Maybe he resented Charles popularity. Lyon is a large (almost 2 million) city but, in many ways, a small town. Especially in their circle.

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Paul didn't like Charles because Charles was a pretentious prick and Paul knew it. Maybe he resented Charles popularity. Lyon is a large (almost 2 million) city but, in many ways, a small town. Especially in their circle.
That's my take on the dynamics from Paul to Charles. Paul obviously had his faults and flaws, but his caring for Gabrielle seemed to be genuine. And it was the total falseness of Charles' character that seemed to incense Paul.

"Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you DO". (The Last Kiss)

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I didn't get this either. I kept waiting for some big reveal as to why Paul despised him so much (before he was going after Gabrielle) but it never happened. For a flash in the first confrontation, I thought maybe he was his father and had abandoned him, or something, lol, but this theory never panned out haha.

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The same happens to me. I keep watching 'til the end hoping a "revelation".
There are so many questions that remains unexplained... How come that sudden love born in the rich, pretencious Paul for an anodyne unappealing girl, just from nowhere.
Why Paul who hates Charles goes to the library.
Why these two men love this girl, I can't understand. Maybe another actress could make me believe such passions around Gabrielle.
Not to mention the conjuror uncle and the ridiculous, unsubtle scene at the end...

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