Product Details

• Actors: Virginie Ledoyen, Benoît Magimel, Dominique Valadié, Michel Bompoil, Véra Briole
• Directors: Benoît Jacquot
• Writers: Benoît Jacquot, Jérôme Beaujour
• Producers: Brigitte Faure, Philippe Carcassonne
• Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: November 3, 1998
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1572521376
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,621 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Next to the blandly flawless feminist heroines played by Demi Moore and Meg Ryan in American movies, Valerie (Virginie Ledoyen), the protagonist in Benoît Jacquot's excellent French film A Single Girl, boasts a whole catalog of shortcomings. Yes, she is young and beautiful (movies are movies, even in the French realist tradition), but she is also selfish, uncertain, irresponsible, and occasionally cruel. Moore's example to the contrary, it's hard to be a saint when you're about to become a single mom, when your boyfriend has been languishing on unemployment, when your own mother behaves more like a dependent child, and when the first job you've been able to find in a year is as a room-service waiter in a luxury hotel.

Valerie's indoctrination at the hotel is her indoctrination into a new system of power and intimidation, some of it economic (the female boss who takes the opportunity to humiliate her), some of it sexual (an abusive coworker who tries to blackmail her), and some of it unpredictably, messily human (the unwanted intimacies she is forced to share with the strangers whose bedrooms and lives she briefly enters). As Valerie, Virginie Ledoyen is a revelation, an intense and serious young performer with the kind of open face that the camera loves. Onscreen every instant, she carries the film with ease and assurance. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Single Actress, July 28, 2000

By 

William Spears (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Single Girl [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A Single Girl is a remarkable movie with an equally remarkable actress. Virginie Ledoyen is on the screen for the whole movie, often by herself in her own thoughts-but you never tire of watching her. This is partly because she is so pretty, and partly because she is so alive on screen. But mostly it is because she is a terrific actress, she goes from flirting to fury in the space of a breath. Finally, you have to credit the director,Benoit Jacquot, with developing a story and a rhythm which allowed Virginie to explore what being a single girl can mean. I agree with the other customer review, where was the academy award nomination for Virginie?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best French films I have ever seen!, April 14, 2000

By 

Rebecca (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Single Girl [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is fantastic. I had to watch it for a French class (I am a French major) and was reluctant at first to even bother paying attention. But the movie is very, very unique (filmed in real time except for a jump ahead to two years later) and exceedlingly well-filmed. Virginie is a fabulous actress (and very brave to be filmed in such a manner), and she portrays the problem of wanting to be a single, independent woman and mother in France. Her portrayal is very important to contemporary French society, and she lives up to the task. This movie is honestly one of my top five favorite French movies, and I have seen many!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding film, but probably not for all tastes., January 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Single Girl (DVD)

Like Godard's VIVRE SA VIE, A SINGLE GIRL is ultimately an affectionate character study of its leading lady, Virginie Ledoyen. Thus, how you respond to this film will depend on how captivated you are by Ledoyen's performance. Prior to viewing A SINGLE GIRL, I was somewhat baffled by her rise to something of cult status in French cinema. Yes, as one reviewer mentioned, she has a cute face, but there is no shortage of cute faces in cinema these days. What is most striking about Ledoyen's performance in A SINGLE GIRL, and what really convinced me of her talent, is the depth and range of feeling she is able to convey just by her movements and expressions. Although she is on screen for the whole picture, she has relatively few lines, and what her character does say, is usually evasive. And yet in order to sell her character, Ledoyen must make her viewer feel the anxiety of a young woman confronting an uncertain situation. One of the more remarkable passages of this film is when Ledoyen calls her mother, and in that phone conversation attempts to tell her mother everything without saying much of anything. It is a riveting scene which has her character searching for maternal affection, while trying to mask her vulnerability.

If you are not similarly enchanted by Ledoyen's performance, it goes without saying that you will not appreciate this film. As the screenplay is lackluster in points and the ending is dissapointing, A SINGLE GIRL succeeds mainly because of Ledoyen's performance (though the supprorting cast is also excellent). If you do not find her peformance absorbing, the real time narration will lose all of its force. As a result, I would recommend that you rent this DVD first. I highly recommend that you give this film an honest viewing (I think it is among the most significant works of the nineties), but it is not for all taste. The Winstar DVD is subpar, as usual. Fortunately the film is presented in widescreen format; however, the transfer is very dark and muddled. Nonetheless, if you were as captivated by this film as I was, you no doubt will be able to tolerate the mediocre presentation.