Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
10 new from £6.99
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Les Biches [1969] [DVD]
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Les Biches [1969] [DVD]

DVD ~ Jean-Louis Trintignant
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.07 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £6.92 (43%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Friday, July 17? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
10 new from £6.99
Learn about Lovefilm
Amazon's choice for DVD rental.
With a 14 day FREE trial. Learn more

Frequently Bought Together

Les Biches [1969] [DVD] + La Femme Infidele [1968] [DVD] + Juste Avant La Nuit [1971] [DVD]
Total RRP: £47.97
Price For All Three: £22.73

Show availability and shipping details

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Les Biches [1969] [DVD]
44% buy the item featured on this page:
Les Biches [1969] [DVD] 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£9.07
Claude Chabrol [DVD]
27% buy
Claude Chabrol [DVD] 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
£12.98
La Femme Infidele [1968] [DVD]
16% buy
La Femme Infidele [1968] [DVD] 4.0 out of 5 stars (6)
£5.98
La Ceremonie [DVD] [1995]
7% buy
La Ceremonie [DVD] [1995] 3.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£5.98
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacqueline Sassard, Stéphane Audran, Nane Germon, Serge Bento
  • Directors: Claude Chabrol
  • Writers: Claude Chabrol, Paul Gégauff
  • Producers: André Génovès
  • Format: PAL
  • Language French
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Arrow Films
  • DVD Release Date: 7 Jun 2004
  • Run Time: 95 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00023JHIG
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,239 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Reviews

Synopsis
Claude Chabrol crafts a complex social allegory in LES BICHES, a subtle and intricate tale of desire, despair, and murder. Released in March of 1968, just months before the May 1968 student revolts in Paris, Chabrol filtered the ever-increasing class struggle in France into the compelling tale of glamorous Frederique (Stephane Audran), who picks up poverty-stricken and beautiful Why on the streets of Paris, promptly seducing her and whisking her away to a new life of wealthy bohemia in St. Tropez. As Why quickly assumes the role of Frederique's protegee and understudy, a complication arrives in the form of Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a handsome young architect with whom Why immediately falls into unrequited love. Frederique confronts the interloper herself, falls in love with him, and jets off to Paris with him, leaving Why to stew in her rejection and abandonment. The suspense builds slowly when the three lovers forge a strange and erotically charged circular relationship. The decor of Frederique's Cote D'azur villa, filled with hunting memorabilia, weapons, and muted colours, heightens the tense and underlying power struggle that slowly propels Why to obsession and madness in the film's haunting and detached climax.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

La Femme Infidele [1968] [DVD]

La Femme Infidele [1968] [DVD]

DVD ~ Stephane Audran
4.0 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.98
Juste Avant La Nuit [1971] [DVD]

Juste Avant La Nuit [1971] [DVD]

DVD ~ Celia
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  £7.68
Le Boucher [1969] [DVD]

Le Boucher [1969] [DVD]

DVD ~ Stéphane Audran
3.6 out of 5 stars (10)  £6.98
Que La Bete Meure [1969] [DVD]

Que La Bete Meure [1969] [DVD]

DVD ~ Michel Duchaussoy
4.5 out of 5 stars (4)  £7.47
The Lives Of Others [DVD] [2007]

The Lives Of Others [DVD] [2007]

DVD ~ Martina Gedeck
4.7 out of 5 stars (115)  £3.87
› Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful period piece, 28 Dec 2006
By Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Les Biches is from the early middle period of Claude Chabrol's long career in film making. It is interesting but somewhat inexplicable. It features longtime French leading man Jean-Louis Trintignant as Paul Thomas, an architect who comes between wealthy playgirl Frederique (Stephane Audran) and her latest plaything, street artist "Why" (Jacqueline Sassard) with disastrous consequences.

Audran, who was Chabrol's wife at the time, sports spit curls down the side of her ears like sideburns which is apropos since her character is bisexual. She is a woman with a steely imperial manner who enjoys conquests above all. First she picks up Why, beds her, and then when Paul arrives on the scene showing an interest in Why, she seduces Paul and dumps Why.

The question is why? In the central scene (as far as the plot goes) the three get drunk with seemingly obvious intent only to have Frederique nix the menage a trois and shut the bedroom door on Why. Why, who has been desperately trying to look like Frederique, sits outside the bedroom door and listens to the drunken lovers inside and sucks on her fingers.

Obviously Paul would have gone along with this juicy arrangement, and certainly Why wanted it desperately. But Frederique is malicious and all conquering. Paul, who is anything but a heroic character does not insist on Why's joining them in bed not because he is madly, exclusively in love with Frederique but more likely because Frederique is the better catch because of her wealth. He is a cautious, opportunistic man.

The dialogue is sharp and witty but reserved and terse. One striking feature is the way the eyes of the women are so heavily made up. Clearly this signals a film made in the sixties. The scene in which Frederique hosts a poker game certainly anticipated the popularity of the game today. Interesting are the sycophantic gay guys that Frederique keeps around her chateau in St. Tropez for amusement.

The finish of the film is a bit of a surprise and really not that well foreshadowed. Also the title, Les Biches (translated as "Bad Girls" in English) is a bit of mystery. More appropriate might be "L'imperatrice petite" with the focus where it should be on the character of Frederique.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Doubles, 20 Jul 2006
By MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Brittle, complicated, almost timeless, Claude Chabrol's sublime "Les Biches" (not what you think, btw...but meaning "The Does" as in a female deer), released in 1968 resonates with subtext and reverberates with thought and meaning from which several subsequent directors have shamelessly borrowed: particularly Robert Altman in his much maligned, though glorious "Three Women" and Barbet Schroeder's more pedestrian "Single White Female."
Frederique (the iconic Stephane Audran) is rich, bored, mostly gay and looking for diversion when she comes upon street artist Why (Jacqueline Sasssard...and yes that is her name) who draws chalk Does on the Paris streets, is homeless, begs for money and sleeps with whomever can offer her a bed for the night. F is more than eager to offer Why a bed, a home in St. Tropez and a life filled with luxuries. But what Frederique is not willing to offer Why is her freedom. F is the master/hunter and Why is the slave/prey: or is it vice versa as throughout this film their roles change,flip then flop then flip again.
Chabrol is dealing with so many things here: the ability to receive or give love unselfishly, the doubling or taking on the persona (shades of Bergman's "Persona" ) of the object of your love, the stain and ruin of jealousy and on and on.
"Les Biches" is simple and stubbornly straightforward on one level yet feverishly complicated on most. Is Love hard as a *itch or soft as a Doe? Look elsewhere if you are looking for the easy answer: You won't find it in "Les Biches."
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Meandering, mesmerising, 2 Jan 2008
By Mr. J. Cook - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Les Biches lacks the thriller element that is to the fore in slightly later films like Juste Avant La Nuit and Que La Bete Meure. The meandering story follows the subtly shifting relationships between the main characters; Chabrol does not exercise the same explicit control over his actors seen in those later films. But it is a no less mesmerising experience for that. The viewer identifies with "Why", the ingénue introduced into the decadent moneyed bohemia over which Stephane Audran reigns. We too look for emotional and moral moorings amid the studied amorality of this set. We follow "Why" as she is inveigled into different relationships, begins to try out different identities and eventually comes to act and to define herself. Chabrol immerses the viewer in the amorality of this milieu and slowly, subtly allows an imperfect and utterly unconventional morality to grow unexpectedly and organically through the course of the film. Les Biches is as unsettling and engrossing as any of his work.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

›Discover Health & Beauty

  

Beauty without the Beast

Olay Regenerist Daily 3 Point Treatment Cream
From au naturel to party glam, we have all the best names in cosmetics and skincare.

›Discover Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

  

Up to 50% off Dental Care

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush - Pack of 2
Put a sparkle in your smile with up to 50% off selected Oral-B and Philips rechargeable toothbrushes.

›Up to 50% off power toothbrushes

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates