Starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Bel Ami is about a French soldier (Pattinson) who climbs the French social order by sleeping with the most powerful women. He manipulates people with charm and seduction until his ultimate social demise.
The film begins with Pattinson's character, Georges Duroy, at what I can assume is a brothel, where he runs into a fellow soldier and old friend. The friend invites him to dinner with his very powerful social circle. Pattinson's character then sleeps with a prostitute. At dinner, he meets the women and they inform him that the men are not the ones holding power, but the women. He begins having secret sex with Clotilde de Marelle (Ricci) in a "love nest" that she has purchased. He attempts a career as a journalist, only to be told he writes like an 'errand boy' by his soldier friend, and then fired. Soon after, his friend dies, and Duroy marries his wife, Madeleine Forestier (Thurman). She begins writing stories for him, which he successfully sells to the newspaper. He discovered that his new wife is sleeping with a Count, so he begins to meet with the third and final powerful woman, Virginie Rousset (Thomas). His wife admits to knowing what he wants, power, above all else. He is left out of plans, he begins to lose any power he had acquired. He attends a party, where is wife arrived with someone else, and partygoers stare at him with contempt. He gets the police to infiltrate the apartment where his wife is sleeping with another man, and she is charged with adultery. Duroy then marries the young daughter of Virginie in a ceremony filled with the people he had manipulated, including the 3 women. As he and his new bride walk back down the aisle, the camera shows the crowd standing and they pass the women. Virginie in the front, being forced to stand, dressed for a funeral. Madeleine, not standing, in the middle, wearing a beige and red silk dress, making a challenging face, as if she knows a secret. And Clotilde appears at the very end, standing, and smiling at first sadly, and then like she, too, knows a secret. Duroy walks triumphantly out of the church.
Bel Ami was confusing, to say the least. I could tell it was about a heartless, talentless man who would do anything for power. He seduces women to get where he wants, almost with no feeling at all. The only times in the film he appeared to be anything remotely caring, was when he was with Ricci's character, Clotilde. Ricci played Clotilde as innocently as possible, for a married woman with a child. Perhaps we could even say she was trusting. She was the kindest. Thurman played a likewise manipulative character, one whom Duroy used the most for power. His feminine equal, so to say, rivaled him in ways I cannot begin to name. Thurman played Madeleine coldly. Even when she was supposed to be emoting, it felt mechanical. Not forced, just unbelievable. Virginie, played by Thomas, was the oldest of the 3 women, and perhaps the most powerful of them all. Her husband was the editor, it seemed, of the newspaper. It was his daughter he smartly agreed to let Duroy marry, to obviously avoid scandal. I thought Thomas was wonderful. She played the fool. Her character so easily believed that Duroy wanted her, and then was hysterical to find out what he really was. It was magnificent, especially the scene where she walks in the room to tell her daughter she cannot marry him. As for Pattinson's portrayal of Duroy, it wasn't believable. I've seen films where he plays a heartless man, as well as films where he plays a kind one. His face was stiff, too guarded. For a man that so easily manipulated powerful people, he did not appear convincing. He seemed hostile when winning these people over, as opposed to open and friendly, which is what people usually cling to. Pattinson missed the part where, yes, he was heartless, but he kept that part mostly hidden. To hide true intentions, you must cover them up with others.
I would recommend this film to my mother, and perhaps my sister. It's a period piece, but one that doesn't too well enough to capture the fee of the period it is set in. 3/10.
Bel Ami currently holds a 28% critic rating and a 30% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Bel Ami trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFlZVLG46c
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440732/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bel_ami_2011/
