Bel Ami (2012)
Country: GB/FR/IT
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister
Synopsis:
Paris, the 1890s. A former soldier down on his luck bumps into an old comrade who gives him a leg up into the newspaper business. Before long, thanks to this man's wife and his own good looks, he is enjoying the favour of the editor, as well as those of the women that prove most useful to him.
Review:
A period adaptation which avoids some of the traps of the genre (gritty mise-en-scène when required, a healthy stab at the cynicism of Maupassant's original) and walks into others (an overdeveloped sense of its own stylishness, underwritten parts). Pattinson strikes a hollow-eyed figure, as if wandering on from some Twilight Saga set, fine for the scenes where he is languishing in poverty but it's a tenacious bit of makeup thereafter. The women are the real interest, though, and Thurman and Ricci are luminous presences, the former commanding and statuesque, the latter kittenish and vulnerable. Their performances and the adroitness of the writing save the film from oblivion.
Country: GB/FR/IT
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister
Synopsis:
Paris, the 1890s. A former soldier down on his luck bumps into an old comrade who gives him a leg up into the newspaper business. Before long, thanks to this man's wife and his own good looks, he is enjoying the favour of the editor, as well as those of the women that prove most useful to him.
Review:
A period adaptation which avoids some of the traps of the genre (gritty mise-en-scène when required, a healthy stab at the cynicism of Maupassant's original) and walks into others (an overdeveloped sense of its own stylishness, underwritten parts). Pattinson strikes a hollow-eyed figure, as if wandering on from some Twilight Saga set, fine for the scenes where he is languishing in poverty but it's a tenacious bit of makeup thereafter. The women are the real interest, though, and Thurman and Ricci are luminous presences, the former commanding and statuesque, the latter kittenish and vulnerable. Their performances and the adroitness of the writing save the film from oblivion.
Country: GB/FR/IT
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister
Synopsis:
Paris, the 1890s. A former soldier down on his luck bumps into an old comrade who gives him a leg up into the newspaper business. Before long, thanks to this man's wife and his own good looks, he is enjoying the favour of the editor, as well as those of the women that prove most useful to him.
Review:
A period adaptation which avoids some of the traps of the genre (gritty mise-en-scène when required, a healthy stab at the cynicism of Maupassant's original) and walks into others (an overdeveloped sense of its own stylishness, underwritten parts). Pattinson strikes a hollow-eyed figure, as if wandering on from some Twilight Saga set, fine for the scenes where he is languishing in poverty but it's a tenacious bit of makeup thereafter. The women are the real interest, though, and Thurman and Ricci are luminous presences, the former commanding and statuesque, the latter kittenish and vulnerable. Their performances and the adroitness of the writing save the film from oblivion.