Bel Ami (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

August 6, 2012 by Dennis Amith 

The latest film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel”Bel Ami” features the extravagance of the Victorian era and features an all-star cast.  But its problem lies within its shortened storyline that leaves out a lot of story from the original novel.   A storyline about seduction with repercussions, the film may not be the best or most faithful adaptation of de Maupassat’s novel but definitely a film tailored for today’s audience and a film that may be worth your while.

Images courtesy of © 2012 Bel Ami Distribution Limited. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: Bel Ami

THEATRICAL RELEASE: 2012

DURATION: 102 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: 2:35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, 5.1 Dolby Digita, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French

COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: R (For Some Strong Sexuality, Nudity and Language)

RELEASE DATE: August 21, 2012

Directed by Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod

Based on the Novel by Guy de Maupassant

Screenplay by Rachel Bennette

Produced by Uberto Passolini

Co-Producer: Laurie Berg

Executive Producer: Simon Fuller

Associate Producer: Ceri Hughes

Music by Larksham Joseph De Saram, Rachel Portman

Cinematography by Stefano Falivene

Edited by Gavin Buckley, Masahiro Hirakubo

Casting by Susie Figgis

Production Design by Attila Kovacs

Art Direction by Zsuzsanna Borvendeg

Set Decoration by Anna Lynch-Robinson

Costume Design by Odile Dicks-Mireaux

Featuring:

Robert Pattinson as Georges Duroy

Uma Thurman as Madeleine Forestier

Kristin Scott Thomas as Virginie Rousset

Christina Ricci as Clotilde de Marelle

Colm Meaney as Monsieur Rousset

Philip Glenister as Charles Forestier

Holliday Grainger as Suzanne Rousset

Nataliea Tena as Rachel the Prostitute

James Lance as Francois Laroche

Anthony Higgins as Comte de Vaudrec

Based on Guy de Maupassant’s classic novel, this tale of temptation and obsession chronicles Georges Duroy’s (Robert Pattinson) rise to power from his meager beginnings as a penniless ex-soldier by using the city’s most influential and wealthy women. Set in turn of the century Paris, Duroy seduces Madame de Marelle (Christina Ricci) then marries Madeleine Forestier (Uma Thurman), a former comrade’s wife. Fueled by his insatiable quest and lustful greed, Duroy conquers Madame Walter (Kristen Scott Thomas), only to learn that every conquest is marred by betrayal and that true love eludes him.

In 1885, French author Guy de Maupassant wrote his second novel “Bel Ami”.

The novel had received several film adaptations beginning in 1939, once again in 1949, a French/Belgian telefilm in 2005 and most recently a 2012 film adaptation by directorial duo Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod and a screenplay by Rachel Bennette (“Lark Rise to Candleford”, “Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”).

The film would star Robert Pattinson (“Twilight” films, “Remember Me”, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”), Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill” films, “Pulp Fiction”, “Gattaca”), Kristin Scott Thomas (“The English Patient”, “Mission: Impossible”,  “Gosford Park”), Christina Ricci (“Sleepy Hollow”, “Monster”, “The Opposite Sex”) and Colm Meaney (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Con Air”, “The Damn United”).

“Bel Ami” is a film set in Paris during the turn of the century and Georges Duroy, who was a soldier serving military service in Algeria is a penniless, illiterate man working as a clerk.

His life changes when he runs into a military comrade Charles Forestier (as portrayed by Philip Glenister), who is a journalist for the newspaper “La Vie Francaise”.  Forestier gives Georges Duroy a chance to become a journalist and a chance to write about minor events and soft news.  But he is hard around the edges, so he gets help from Charles’ wife Madeleine Forestier (as portrayed by Uma Thurman).

For Georges, he is more into bedding women and has his eye set on Madeleine, but she is not the type to engage in affairs and warns him that she has no interest of being anyone’s mistress.

So, Madeleine gives him advice to go after other women including her friend Clotilde de Marelle (as portrayed by Christina Ricci).  She is married but her husband is often gone on business.

And eventually, Georges manages to have a sexual relationship with Clotilde but when he is caught by a prostitute, their relationship ends.  And to make things worse, it affects his relationship with Charles Forestier.  Knowing that Madeleine has helped Georges write his articles, he asks to see his own written work and is not so thrilled with his lack of writing skills.  And he is fired by Monsieur Rousset (as portrayed by Colm Meaney).

But being the charmer, he goes to visit Monsieur Rousset with a basket of pears and meets his wife Virginie (as portrayed by Kristin Scott Thomas) and immediately, his charms are able to bring him closer to her.

During a gathering, Georges runs into Clotilde and once again, the two continue their sexual relationship.  But always a man who has an eye towards Madeleine Forestier, a woman he can not have.

Unfortunately for Madeleine, Charles has gotten sick and dies.  Seeing this as an opportunity to finally have a sexual encounter with Madeleine, he confronts her about his desire.

But once again, she warns him that she is not the type that type of woman and if he wants her, he must marry her.

So, Georges marries Madeleine and she continues to write his articles.   And instead of being Georges Duroy, he takes on the aristocratic French name of “Du Roy”) to add prestige to his name for his articles.  And Madeleine slowly begins to make Georges the writer that he she wants him to be.

But upon marriage, others begin to call Georges the nickname “Forestier” (it is learned that Madeleine also wrote the articles for Charles) and it begins to make him feel uncomfortable.  But when Monsieur Rousset gives him an idea of how his wife really is,  Georges slowly becomes jealous of his wife and starts to wonder if Madeleine has had affair with the Comte de Vaudrec (as portrayed by Anthony Higgins) behind his back.

So, in revenge of being told this information by one of the most powerful men in Paris, he begins to have an affair with Virginie Rousset.   And it leads him having a marriage with Madeleine and an affair with Clotilde and Virginie.

When the Comte de Vaudrec passing away, he leaves his entire estate to Madeleine.  And a complication arises when why Madeleine was left with his estate (as property was left to the man/husband not to a woman) unless there was impropriety.  And if Madeleine accepts it, it will show that she did have an affair with him and bring shame to Georges Du Roy.  But if Georges accepts it, then no harm would be brought to them.

With Georges jealousy growing and how the wealthy look down at him despite the changes in his life, it sets Georges Du Roy on a path of wanting to become more powerful than his wife Madeleine, Monsieur Rousset and more!

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Bel Ami” is presented in 2:35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen and in English 5.1 Dolby Digital.  The costume design for this film is fantastic and the cinematography by Stefano Falivene is well-done.  It’s unfortunate that “Bel Ami” is not being released on Blu-ray, because the set design and costume design are so beautiful too look at, that it would have looked even more impressive on Blu-ray.  But as one can expected from DVD, it’s not going to be as clear or have greater claritythan HD but the details of the film are good, scenes are well-lit and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

As for audio, the dialogue is very clear.  The music by Lakshman Joseph De Saram and Rachel Portman are beautiful to listen to.  But I didn’t notice any major surround usage, even during crowd scenes.  If anything, possibly the music is what one remembers the most of the overall audio but if anything, this soundtrack for “Bel Ami” is purely center and front channel driven.

Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Bel Ami” comes with the following special feature:

• Behind the Scenes Featurette – Interviews with the  filmmakers and the cast of “Bel Ami” discussing their character and the film.

Whenever there is a film adaptation of a classic novel, I really don’t envy the writer because there is a lot of expectation for the writer to be faithful to its original source.  But in today’s movie making, the storyline must captivate today’s audience and what could be an intellectual and complex drama, may be distilled to the point of being banal.

The 2012 film adaptation of “Bel Ami” is a film that loses a lot of plot and skips a lot of connections that its main character Georges Duroy encounters.  What is more important for this rags-to-riches story is to show how this man has gone from wanting to sexually conquer the wealthy women of Paris to a man that wants to prove that he is anything but a ruffian, an illiterate nothing.

The problem is, his associate and later marriage to A personality, the go-getter Madeleine, is responsible for his fame.  She just uses his name, but his naivety leads him to think that he is just part of the crowd of wealthy, intellectuals.  When he is still the same man and others do not think of him as highly.

The story of “Bel Ami” is actually quite fascinating and enjoyable, the costume and set design including the musical score and its cinematography are also fantastic.  And the film does have an all star cast.

But its problems lies within its acting.  While the sexual chemistry is there, at times I felt that I was not watching Georges Duroy but Edward of “Twilight”.   A vampire that is hungry for women, but not for blood but for sex.  But I suppose that is the allure of actor Robert Pattinson.  Women love him as I will think that many will love him in this film.   But I felt his acting was spotty, facial expressions not so natural and it was the women that helped carry the film.  But still, I feel that he has matured as an actor, but he needed a bit of consistency.

Christina Ricci did wonderfully as the more emotional character Clotilde de Marelle and the scenes between Ricci and Pattinson were delightful.  In fact, I feel of the actresses in the film, she is the one that shined.  From her emotional acting to the use of her eyes, it was well captured and she played Clotilde remarkably well.

The film also shows us another side of Kristin Scott Thomas the actress.  Know to be a diverse actress who can play anything and in this film, Scott Thomas plays the role of Virginie Rousset, a faithful wife of a wealthy journalist who gets caught up in a sexual affair and now, can’t resist being away from Georges that it becomes intoxicating.

And it’s good to see Uma Thurman as beautiful as ever playing the role of Madeleine Forestier.  Although, she sounds as if she had a cold or had lost her voice throughout the film.

But while the direction of “Bel Ami” was good and an amazing debut for directorial duo Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, perhaps the film would have been better if longer to incorporate some scenes to build on character development.  The scenes with actress Holliday Grainer as Suzanne Rousset was far too short and felt it needed a bit more.

As for the DVD, as mentioned earlier, the costume and set design, including the cinematography were very good.  I enjoyed the musical score and it is a shame that “Bel Ami” did not receive Blu-ray consideration.  But for fans of the talents or those wanting to watching this drama, overall picture and audio quality is good, as one can expect on DVD.

Overall, “Bel Ami” was a film that had a lot of of potential but I feel that screenwriter Rachel Bennette had a difficult job of crafting a screenplay and to reduce so much of the original plot for a 102 minute film.  Focusing primarily on Georges Duroy and his trysts of three women who would have an influence on his adult life.  But by doing so and limiting so much storyline, it does undermine the original novel which offered so much more.

The latest film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel”Bel Ami” features the extravagance of the Victorian era and features an all-star cast.  But its problem lies within its shortened storyline that leaves out a lot of story from the original novel.   A storyline about seduction with repercussions, the film may not be the best or most faithful adaptation of de Maupassat’s novel but definitely a film tailored for today’s audience and a film that may be worth your while.