MovieChat Forums > La fille coupée en deux (2007) Discussion > The Cutting at the End

The Cutting at the End

posted 15 years ago by cdav30
3 replies | jump to latest

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about what the final scene meant. She's told by her uncle that he might have something to help her, which turns out to mean being his stage assistant and creating the illusion of being cut in half at the waist. The first time I saw it, judging by the blade and her tears, I actually thought she was being killed on stage as her uncle tried to put her out of her misery.

Do you think it was just symbolic of how her body was split in two between the two men? Maybe her lower half (i.e. bodily urges) was in favor of Charles while her upper half (i.e. her brains and desire to live comfortably) was in favor of Paul?

[–] robbie-h-wilson 15 years ago

i thought it was pretty trite symbolism and a literal pull from the title-
although i think her real love was always for charles whether he deserved it or not.

[–] SpatsColombo 15 years ago

Her uncle is an illusionist. The point is that the figurative cutting in two, like the literal cutting at the end, is an illusion from which Gabrielle emerges smiling. The relationships shown in the film, particularly those between Charles and, on the one hand, Gabrielle, and Dona on the other, are not as they appear to be. In particular (it seems to me) Gabrielle does not start out naive and does not end up "perverted", Charles is not a smooth and accomplished manipulator; and his reasons for staying with his wife have more to do with guilt at the way he betrays his "saint" than with a genuine waning of interest in her once he's had his wicked way.

[–] denham 11 years ago

robbie-h-wilson: it was pretty trite symbolism

Precisely so. It is not excessively subtle.

"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."