Bel Ami

I liked the movie and I pick movies apart. The connection was great and this was the first time for me to use the movie amazon process. The only disadvantage in the online process was that if you wanted to go back and listen to something you missed it took a few seconds to rewind back but nothing drastic. Here is my honest opinion of the film. Just remember that everyone has an opinion. I cannot say without being honest that Robert Pattinson did not embed the character fully until about half way through the film. But one cannot deny this man has talent. At the time, you are looking at a 23 year old man with limited experience in portraying adult males. I think considering all, he can hold his head up with pride. The viewer can see that there was definite ease between Ricci and Pattinson because their performances flowed and I give Ricci credit, she performed well off of Pattinson. I feel that Thomas gave an outstanding performance as well. She flowed great with Pattinson. That love scene between Pattinson and Thomas was exceptional! It displayed the pure callousness of Pattinson's character and the starved mature woman's need for affectionate worth. Ricci pulled off her character's need for sexual enrichment and you get Pattinson's connection with this woman and how she expects little back by placing very little demands on him. In my opinion, which is like belly buttons, everyone has one, Thurman was a miscast. Her performance wasn't really the issue, she did well with the character, however, she wasn't as receptive to Pattinson, as if there was a hidden reluctance to let go, which also seemed to bar him a little. Also, Thurman's raspy voice gives less than a gentile female ora. Her blonde hair also fails to promote a sense of intelligence because if anything, Thurman's character was brilliant in both common and learning sense. Actually, Thurman and Pattinson's characters share commonalities. Now to me the greatest disappointment of this movie had nothing at all to do with the actors because, it was pulled off in the end by the actors. It was held in the hands of the director who controlled the cinematography. I am a lover of period films and I cannot imagine this movie with its set budget and the director's attention to beautiful period details to help transport you back to Paris 1800s, only then to trash all that work by staying close up on most of the shots. Mentally, you couldn't move into that century for lack of visual reference to make the actors believable that they really are in Paris of 1800. I loved Thomas and Pattinson's shot at the flower cart on the street and the awesome church scene. Excellent scenes and performances! Same with Thurman and Pattinson's Cannes scenes. Loved Pattinson's scene when entering in his home asking the location of his wife to their butler. All were enhanced by the beautiful visual setting. You cannot fail to brag on Meaney, Grainger, and Glenister who were also perfectly cast and played out their characters wonderfully. I read a review that assailed Pattinson for not having the acting chops to pull off an 1800's Parisian gentleman. This person clearly missed the character. Duroy wasn't a gentleman by birth at all and Pattinson did portray this clearly of Duroy, as well as, development of this gentleman nature in the character the more the character was exposed to the environment of the rich. Maybe the director should have emphasized this developing change by the desire and intent in Pattinson's character more in the movie verbally. Pattinson pulled it off that Duroy was young, impulsive, selfish, vindictive, sensually driven. lazy and callous. He played off well with most of the characters in the movie. There was only a small amount of over dramatic performing in one scene, the one with all the men at the table at the newspaper office, where he is annoyed and tempered. But by the same token who can deny the wonderful anger performance with Thomas and Pattinson, and the scene where Pattinson orders them all from his house. Excellent acting on Pattinson's part, as well as, his counterparts.! If you like period films, this movie will entertain you. Those who are spitting at Pattinson for thinking he is only an Edward Twilight character, well, shame on you! This man pulled off an excellent performance in Remember Me and can be considered solid in that he pulled off this movie at such a young age. I feel he has talent and will be like wine with time. He will have a fine taste as vintage manifest. Pattinson has the talent to be one of the greats of his time if he plays his cards right. He will be vintage. This coming from a non Twihard and someone who believes that Pattinson deserves a fair chance to perform without being ostracized for an outstanding performance he did in a franchise movie. Watching Pattinson's performance develop in this movie and seeing Remember Me, I just imagine, Edward Cullen, was a less than challenging role for this man. You need to see this man in the character he is portraying on the screen while you are watching the movie and let go of Edward.

I've never so hotly disagreed with an IMDB rating.It's very easy to get tripped up in comparing the artistry and relevance of Guy de Maupassant's novel with the quality of this cinematic portrayal of it.I have never read this novel but I suspect the screen play is brilliant, given the ease with which I felt sympathy for the characters and a resonance with the social and political concerns of that time.The movie seized my attention very quickly in the beginning and never, ever let me down. The lighting, in particular, was unlike any I've seen in modern (color) movies set in Paris. Most everyone who visits Paris or lives there, I would think, will comment on the unique quality of its natural light. I think most films have tried too hard to create or capture it. This movie brought back to me memories of my most intimateawarenesses of Paris's luminous and shadowed nuances.The scenes play out in near constant tension as the characters battle to claim some kind of autonomy and invincibility from merciless tides of competition, change and uncertainty.The actors engage deeply with one another and their mutual states of desperation are brilliantly portrayed. Uma Thurman's performance is, to me, Oscar worthy. She is positively vicious in her power, obsessions, and self awareness. Pattison rises to the occasions of her with just enough naivete to prove that he is not stupid, he is learning and he really is very smart. More compellingly, he is a sensitive character, a war veteran who spent his earliest adult years in battle and to have survived with a sensuality that is nearly innocent. The scene where Madeleine all but rapes Georges is heartbreaking to watch. Pattison's du Roy never shows such viscerally violated brokenness or grief with any other of his antagonists as he does with Mado, Madeleine. While his character would likely become more and more bitter and dehumanized with each subsequent betrayal, he is learning how to endure the pain and survive. His character is impassioned and real without being a mystical Dickinsonion fall guy. Pattison keeps this character alive and inextricably engaged with the other major characters in every single scene, brilliantly morphing into who Georges really is when he is with those characters. It's marvelous to see.

I didn't like "Bel Ami" despite the excellent supporting cast for Robert Pattinson (an actor who I don't like). I found the film to be too disjointed and I found it hard to decipher what exactly was going on at times ,who certain characters were and what role they played in the plot (what little there was) of the film. "Bel Ami" is set in 1890's Paris and Pattinson plays a poor ex soldier who manages to ingratiate himself into the higher echelons of Parisian society and becomes a favourite of a number of attractive wealthy women,most of whom he beds in illicit trysts against a backdrop of a likely French invasion of Morocco . I didn't like most of the characters apart from Christina Ricci's and the film was particularly unmoving and uninvolving.One to avoid I think unless you happen to be a keen fan of Robert Pattinson.

Enjoyed this film, a nice film that although not really much plot was still intresting enough to watch

So far from the brilliant mind and work of Guy de Maupassant I wonder if those responsible for it ever actually read the novel. What's worse it that even this crumpled "version" itself, of a great French classic, has no merit.

I enjoyed this movie. R patz was great. As were the three lead actresses. I am not a massive fan of twilight either so wanted to see if he could actually act. I liked it. It is what it is. Going to give cosmopolis a go tonight lol. Once you get pattinson out of that twilight bollocks he's actually quite a good actor!

This should have been a good film especially with the cast but sadly it wasn't! It didn't hold my attention and I found it dull. Also the sound quality of the film was really naff!