What a waste of my time!!!

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Brilliant and touching

A SINGLE GIRL (Benoît Jacquot - France 1995).A little known gem with the beautiful Virginie Ledoyen in the lead. I have a special relation with some films and this is certainly one of them. I first saw it - not long after it came out - on Dutch public television in my final year in high school. I thought the girl in the main role (Virginie Ledoyen) was the coolest girl I ever saw and the film always stuck with me. Later on, largely due to her performance in this film, she would become a big star and continued to be in the limelight and even played alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in THE BEACH (2000), so that's probably why I kept remembering her role in LA SEULE FILLE.For a large part, the film plays in real time as the camera follows Valérie on the day she finds out she's pregnant. She starts a new job in a hotel as a maid. Her day-to-day routines are followed, her various encounters with the hotel guests and her intermittent meetings with her boyfriend at a nearby café. He doesn't know how to handle the situation, he doesn't have a job and cannot seem to make up his mind about anything, let alone this situation. He is a bit of a loser. Off course Valérie is in the toughest spot but somehow she never ceases to lose control or overview of the situation. She is on screen all the time as the camera follows her constantly while she walks down the corridors of the hotel, in the elevator, walking down the streets. Even though she has an attitude, is arrogant and acts a bit too wise for a girl her age, she remains absolutely fascinating throughout the film.The lack of plot hardly mattered to me, because it's compensated by Virginie Ledoyen's radiant presence. This is the perfect example of a film where one actor or actress completely makes it work.Camera Obscura --- 9/10

the french make everything chic! even work! the movie is about a day in the life of a young girl, who gets pregnant, dumps her boyfriend and is starting her first day as a maid in a big hotel. so cool! the boyfriend is dumped i can't remember for unknown reasons, but hell the baby will grow up by itself. ah now i remember, speed is the main motto of this movie. the girl runs around everywhere, she does everything at top speed, make beds, deal with problems, watch the baby grow, unfortunately those of us who live life, know that a year doesn't just fly away, it has to be lived, that we have to wake up, brush our teeth, go to work, scratch our ass, come back from work, drink ourselves silly, get made fun of by vain blonde girls and then do it all over again. and definitely kids don't grow up by themselves. so yeah, some of the other reviews will have you believing that she's totally in charge and ah so in control, which is true, but in a fake sort of way. in a way, like someone who's got a sheet load of cash and is only play acting with life. unfortunately, we don't have that luxury, but hey it's good to see on the screen. i particularly like the the whole maid scenario, those are some of the best scenes of the movie, like when she is making the bed and this old geezer grabs her. i wish that was me, like a little cameo part. go see this movie!

"A Single Girl" is an absorbing experience. Nothing really happens and there's not much dialogue, but it's completely engrossing. It's about a morning in the life of a hauntingly beautiful woman, Valerie, who's at a crossroads in her life. It's filmed in real time, meaning there are no cut-aways that skip time. If Valerie needs to get somewhere, we watch her walk to that place. There's no narration or "traveling" music. It's as if we are Valerie. What makes the film work so well is the wonderful, subtle performance by Virginie Ledoyen.

I loved this movie... its a powerful tale shot in realtime, that shows two pivitol hours in the life of a single girl... As someone who has worked in the hotel industry the thing that struck me was the fact that if you changed the langague to English it could be sit in an American city. It a warm truthful picture of life.