Director: Declan Donnellan & Nick Ormerod
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott-Thomas
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 minutes
Extras: Interviews with cast members and the directors, a behind-the-scenes featurette
If you research into the directors behind BEL AMI, you may not recognise their names. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re new to the business of show. Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod set up theatre company Cheek By Jowl in 1981, which went on to stage many productions, including Laurence Olivier award winning adaptations of Macbeth and Twelfth Night. Which makes sense really, as BEL AMI is everything you’d expect of a stage play – with a big dose of decadence.
Set in Paris in the 1890s, Pattinson stars as Georges Duroy, a man of meagre means who manages to secure a job as a newspaper columnist. Once he gets a taste of the good life it becomes clear he wants more – more money, more celebrity and more women. Not afraid to break hearts, Duroy shares encounters with many married ladies, including Clotilde (Christina Ricci), Madeleine Forestier (Uma Thurman) and Madame Walter (Kristin Scott Thomas). A man of little moral stature, Duroy becomes untouchable.
Donnellan and Ormerod mention several times in their featurette interview that this is their first adventure into film. Although sometimes you can spot a debut, BEL AMI carries a perfect mix of emerging France, lavish living, debauchery and sex. Working together with costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux and principal photographer Hagen Bogdanski, the directors’ final product gives a real sense of what it would’ve been like to mix with French aristocrats.
However, the film has one problem. At the beginning you may feel sympathetic towards Duroy, but that feeling soon dissipates. That might be what the filmmakers want us to feel, but half way through I figured it wasn’t so much Duroy that I didn’t like; it was Pattinson himself. Although it’s good to see him without fangs and a thirst for blood, he just isn’t likeable. I’m a fan of his other work (not TWILIGHT) such as REMEMBER ME (2010), but in this he just looks plain bored. I have to hand it to the women though; they are what make the film for me. Ricci, Thurman and Scott Thomas all play along brilliantly, really fitting into their roles and portraying such beautiful but troubled characters. Match that with the stunning sets and costumes and you have a believable period piece. It’s just a shame Pattinson isn’t up to scratch.
If you’re looking for something along the lines of A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011), or a sexed up version of an Austen classic, this is the film for you. Although Pattinson can – at times – be hard to watch, the women (in particular Ricci) are spectacular and tie up the film nicely.
BEL AMI is released on DVD 23rd July.
