Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

jotix100 Claude Chabrol, one of the best French directors of the last century, had a glorious career. Sadly, the man that gave movie fans so much pleasure passed away recently. "Bellamy" was his last full length feature which we caught in its commercial release recently at IFC. The last part of this master's career, alas, pales in comparison to the first period when he started directing after a distinguished career as a film critic and historian.In a way, this film cannot be considered one of his best efforts. Mr. Chabrol had never worked with Gerard Depardieu at all, so this film was supposed to be a sort of tribute to the actor, as the main character in the film is modeled in some aspect of the performer, as conceived in the mind of the director. The end result is a film that, while being considered a crime movie, has other elements, not the typical product of a man that made a career out of mystery and suspense.Gerard Depardieu does excellent work for Mr. Chabrol, although with his new acquired girth, he is far from the ideal man to play this inspector on vacation in Southern France. There are interesting appearances by Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin, and Marie Bunel, who plays Mrs. Bellamy.Edoardo Serra, who had worked with Mr. Chabrol extensively, is the director of photography. Mr. Serra, in a way, makes the film much better than what it is. Matthieu Chabrol's musical score adds character to the production. Claude Chabrol's disappearance from the French cinema will certainly be missed because it is an irreplaceable loss.

MARIO GAUCI Having taken an unplanned breather from my ongoing Chabrol marathon, I ended up missing out on the very birthday I was celebrating! Anyway, I promptly reprised the schedule via his most recent offering – which, though it seems to have slipped pretty much under everybody's radar, emerges a decidedly solid effort.Amazingly, the director and the film's leading man – Gerard Depardieu, one of France's top stars for the last 35 years – had never worked together and, while the result does not particularly tax either of their talents, the thoroughly professional (but, at the same time, relaxed) contribution of both here attests to their longevity. Incidentally, I last watched this actor not too long ago in similar (albeit period) guise in DARK PORTALS: THE CHRONICLES OF VIDOCQ (2001), where the exploits of that real-life detective had received distinctly fanciful treatment.In fact, here Depardieu (looking incredibly puffy if still charismatic) is an eminent Police Inspector on vacation who is approached by a strange man confessing his responsibility in the demise of another whose charred body was discovered on a nearby beach in the film's opening scene. As the titular figure burrows into the case, he realizes not only that the identity of both killer and victim were fake but also that they are one and the same! Having become involved with a much younger woman, the man had intended disappearing (and eventually change facial features, which he does!) to throw his wife off the scent. However, the patsy selected for this ruse proves to be a tramp with a death-wish – so that it turns out the would-be killer is actually innocent of his own admitted crime!!The situation, then, is resolved in a most surprising trial sequence – with the Prosecuting Attorney assuming, at Depardieu's instigation, the role of Defense Counsel as well and providing his definitive statement in song! To complicate matters for Bellamy even further, his ne'er-do-well half-brother – with whom he shares a love/hate relationship – comes to visit and, at the end, perishes in much the same mysterious way as the subject of his latest investigation!As can be surmised from my comments, the film is essentially a lightweight, old-fashioned affair (barring a few swift transitions in the modern manner) but polished and entertaining enough to reap considerable rewards for movie connoisseurs of most persuasions.

mehmet_kurtkaya A famous French detective on vacation in Languedoc investigates a mystery man who approaches him claiming to have killed someone. The man is sure to catch the curiosity of the detective and spectators of the movie! This is a great Chabrol movie, with characters who could have been actors in the biggest financial crime of humanity. As the investigation unfolds we see homeless people, fraud, insurance brokers, lawyers, police, big financial institutions. Every time the detective asks a question or makes a comment how bad the world is, we wonder what he has next to uncover.The half brother of the successful detective, an alcoholic, a loser, comes over to stay at the detective and his wife's vacation home. The movie then asks the real questions, what makes winners and losers? Who are the real winners ? Who are the criminals? And it does reply to these questions in humorous, intelligent and intriguing ways.The film surely is much more than a detective story. The screenplay is fantastic. Chabrol does not rush, it always gives time to spectators to search for answers in their own while solving the murder mystery.Solid acting by Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin make the movie flow smoothly.A must see, for anyone interested in Chabrol movies, detective stories and especially for anyone who tries to make sense of the economic crisis and the world we live in.

Chris Knipp Chabrol is 78, and this is his 57th film. He's in fine form here, though this hasn't quite got the delirious malice or the cloying bourgeois atmosphere of his most potent works. The closing dedication is to "the two Georges." They are Georges Brassens, the French singer-songwriter, and Georges Simenon, the prolific Belgian-born maker of novels hard and soft and the creator of the inimitable Commissioner Maigret. This is the first time Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu have worked together. For the occasion, Chabrol has conceived a lead character who's half Maigret, half Depardieu. And he has based his crime plot on a news item. The ingredients blend well and the result is guaranteed to entertain.There is an actual Maigret novel in which the Paris detective goes on vacation with his wife, but then becomes involved in a case. ('Les Vacances de Maigret'--and it was made into a film!) It's a foregone conclusion that Maigret, and Chabrol's Commissioner Paul Bellamyworki (Depardieu) is no different, is happiest when he's solving a murder mystery. Bellamy spends every summer with his wife Françoise (Marie Bunel) in the region of Nimes, in the south of France, where she maintains a cozy bourgeois family house. She would prefer they join a cruise on the Nile, where Bellamy would be less able to get his nose into French crime, but here they are. And as the film begins and Maigret, I mean Bellamy, is doing a crossword and Françoise is planning dinner and shopping, a suspicious-looking lean sort of fellow called Noël Gentil (Jacques Gamblin) is hovering around in the garden just outside the picture window, and finally gets up his courage and raps on the front door. Bellamy has written a well known memoir and like Maigret is so famous people seek him out.Mme. Bellamy turns the man away, but there's a phone call, and Bellamy goes to a motel room, and he finds this chap interesting because people interest him. Gentil turns out to have several aliases, and even faces, because he's sought the help of a plastic surgeon. He shows the photo of a man who looks rather like himself and says he "sort of killed him." He declares himself to be in a terrible mess. There are several women, a wife (Marie Matheron) and a beautiful young woman who has a beauty shop (Vahina Giocante) in the town. And, as in the Simenon novel, there is a local police inspector, a certain Leblanc, whom Bellamy doesn't respect, and assiduously avoids, and Chabrol never shows us on screen.M. Gentil turns out to be a suspect involved in a double life and a devious crime. But he is seeking the Commissioner's help--on a private basis. It has to do with an insurance scam that went awry.Chabrol is also involved in a double process, because the film takes a complicated family turn with the arrival of Bellamy's ne'er-do-well half-brother Jacques Lebas (Clovis Cornillac), who gambles, drinks too much, and has a habit of going off with things that don't belong to him. Cornillac wears this character's skin so comfortably he never seems to be acting, and with a part like this, that's a neat trick, and he makes Jacques somehow elegant as well.Part of the charm of this easy-to-watch if unchallenging film is the warm relationship between Françoise and Bellamy, which is romantic and affectionate and physical and cozy all at once. Bunel and Depardieu (who is very large now, a benignly beached whale in a good suit) play very well together. There is a dinner with a gay dentist (Yves Verhoeven) and his partner, which Jacques horns in on; this isn't terribly interesting. Nor is the case extremely resonant. The most memorable moments are those between Bellamy and his wife and his love-hate squabbling with the unpredictable half-brother, which are enhanced by the bright colors and warmth of the southern French setting. There is a young lawyer who shines in court, and lines from a Georges Brassens song are used in a surprising way. Fans of Chabrol and of Depardieu (and the two Georges!) won't want to miss this.Bellamy opened in Paris February 25, 2009 to decent reviews. Given its north American premiere at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center in March 2009, this seems sure to get a US distributor, but none has been announced yet.