Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The first must-see film of the year.

'Les Biches', whilst not my favourite Chabrol film ranks among his best. On one level it has sumptuous cinematography on a par with 'Le boucher', another excellent score, courtesy of Pierre Jansen and some very stylish direction. All Chabrol's actors play their parts beautifully although Audran undoubtedly has the best material.But what marks this film out and what many cannot appear to perceive is that it is not a meditation on class or a portrait of a 'menage a trois'. It does touch on those subjects, as do many of Chabrol's films, but this film is essentially about identity and it's destruction or absorption by another. Stephanie Audran's character is, put simply a VAMPIRE. This is humorously and beautifully established early in the picture when she first meets Sassard's character 'Why' on a bridge in Paris amid a Gothic mist and with Audran looking drained and evidently needing a new victim. Many have commented on Jean-Louis Trintignant's acting, arguing that it is bland or inexpert, failing to realise that as part of the plot he had to be 'consumed' by Audran and had to appear ineffectual. Compare Audran's extraordinarily vital, near superhuman character in 'Les Biches' to her purposefully meek character in 'La Rupture' and one can begin to see what a subtle and intelligent actress she is.On first viewing 'Les Biches' some years ago I was mystified and like other reviewers irritated by the two scroungers Robegue and Riais. After further viewing it appears they are purposefully antagonistic and their apparently parasitic relationship points to them being Audran's familiars.The raison d'etre of the film are the final sequences in which 'Why' ultimately escapes the fate of Paul and destroys Frederique by becoming her. So 'Les Biches' is essentially a nuanced and very stylised commentary on identity and it's struggle to coexist within a relationship.

"Les Biches" must be one of Claude Chabrol's sexiest movies ever. Both Stéphane Audran and Jacqueline Sassard are gorgeous women, but beyond that, the way the camera captures their bodies, their movements, their smiles, their kisses, etc. is purely erotic. They are also pretty terrific actresses. Audran fits her role like a glove, and Sassard (who sadly dropped out of acting after this film) gives a performance full of understated passion. The male lead, Jean-Louis Trintignant, is easily the least interesting and developed of the three main characters, but it doesn't matter much; the story begins and ends with the two women. Audran's two eccentric friends / freeloaders in her lavish house provide some amusing comic relief. The film is quite unpredictable in its development, in fact for a while it almost seems like everything might turn out just fine, until you remember that a) Chabrol doesn't like happy endings, b) that poisoned dagger could not have been introduced so early without a reason....Anyway, this is an absorbing, beautifully filmed psychological thriller, and I think it's also a great starting point for those still unfamiliar with Chabrol's work. *** out of 4.

A movie is doomed when it does not live up to what is written on the back of its video box. When you advertise a movie of seduction, passion, and lust and than produce a 90 minute movie with empty conclusions at every scene that go nowhere, you get Les Biches. In my opinion, this movie of seduction is rated G. Bad, far from enjoyable, most of the movie is annoying to an American audience. Every character disappoints the audience. Neither one hasn't anything seductive about them.Could have been a great movie, lost its chance, a passionless movie about passion.

With "les biches" ,Chabrol entered his second and most fruitful period:the first one encompassed such classics as "les cousins" and "à double tour" but his formula began to wear thin in the mid -sixties with failures like "l'oeil du malin" "Marie-Chantal contre le docteur Kah" and the abysmal "le scandale".Stephane Audran ,his then-wife starred in all these movies (roughly 1968-1973)bar two ("la decade prodigieuse" and "docteur popaul") and their spellbinding mysterious atmosphere owes a lot to her."Les biches " has not worn that much well though:at the time ,lesbians were not so common in the movies ,and of course they always had a bad end -see also Mark Rydell's "the fox" or William Wyler's "the children's hour"for that matter-.What remains today is not much :only the scene showing Jacqueline Sassard's trying to become the woman she loves by taking her clothes ,her jewels ,her make-up and her voice is still impressive today;what remains falls into the trap of triteness:the man who comes between the two girls ,the chic bourgeois life in Saint-Tropez under the snow,the two would be comic reliefs -who are not funny at all-...."Les biches" is a must for Chabrol 's fans because it inaugurates his golden era ,which would give such classics as "la femme infidèle" or "le boucher".But the others can easily do without it.