Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

robert-temple-1 We commonly speak of 'the elephant in the room'. But what about the elephant on the screen? Gerard Depardieu, talented and magnetic personality that he is, has now grown to such a size that he really should out of delicacy keep himself from public view. The idea of him being even remotely romantic is absurd. In this film, his slender and attractive wife (Marie Bunel) shows him great loving devotion, they are always kissing and cuddling, and he is constantly feeling her in the intimate places of her anatomy while she appears to be thrilled by this attention. But how convincing is that? His stomach is now so gigantic that he appears to be pregnant with sextuplets. In one ludicrous bedroom scene, his wife leaps on top of him while he is lying on his back, and ends up hopelessly stranded on top of his gigantic tummy like a beached ship. I can only presume that Claude Chabrol, in this last film which he made in the year before he died, was having his little joke. Depardieu's face has expanded into a full moon, and one has to struggle to recognise him. Everyone knows that in what passes for 'real life', Depardieu likes his food and wine, but really, one has to choose, and since he has chosen to become so immensely fat through showing no restraint in his inordinate consumption, he must face the fact that his days as a screen Lothario are over. Indeed, it is even difficult to take him seriously now as a character actor. It is such a pity, because he is such a good actor. Perhaps he needs one of those stomach operations to restrain him, as it is probably too late for dieting to accomplish much. However, turning to the film itself, it is even more complex than usual for a Chabrol film. The ostensible story turns out not to be the real story at all. It is not the mystery which the detective tries to solve which is the purpose of the film, but the detective himself who has to be solved by the viewers. And this is also Inspector Bellamy's own greatest challenge as an investigator, to understand the riddle of himself. The film is so multi-textured, with hints and strands running everywhere, that people who enjoy solving puzzles will have a great time. Murder and betrayal are in there, as they appear to have been twin obsessions of Chabrol. But most deeply rooted in this film is the motif of self-detestation because of terrible deeds one has done in the past, which have remained secret, and which have devoured one from within over decades. Depardieu conveys successfully a man destroyed by regrets so bitter that they can never be repaired. His feckless half-brother, a drunk and dropout who stays with Depardieu and his wife during their break from Paris (where Depardieu is said to be a famous detective inspector, and in any case he keeps his gun in a drawer in his kitchen, so he must be a detective), is played with poignant and embittered despair by Clovis Cornillac (how amazing to have the first name of a Merovingian king!) The multi-tasking Jacques Gamblin, who was so brilliant in Chabrol's COLOUR OF LIES (1999, see my review), here plays no less than three characters. Perhaps Chabrol was doing an essay not only on double-identity but triple-identity. Whatever his intentions in this intense and bizarre film, Chabrol certainly was reaching for some profundities, some of which he reached, and some of which remained beyond his grasp. It is as if a drowning man were searching for the ultimate answers to the things which most troubled him and, his hands stretching from the water which is about to engulf him, managed to grab hold of some last insights just before he sank. I suppose the film is ultimately unsatisfying because it is somewhat self-indulgent, but there can be little doubt of Chabrol's earnest intent, so we must respect that. A man making his last film is not struggling for effect, he is gasping for meaning. I can understand some people saying they did not like this film, because it was not made for entertainment purposes, it was made for Chabrol's peace of mind, a kind of anguished testament perhaps. The film contains continuous references to the marvellous song-writer and singer Georges Brassens (1921-1981), as well as repeatedly mentioning his grave at the southern seaport of Sète (a town where they have the most delicious and authentic fish soup, which I highly recommend), which was his home town. I did not 'get' all of this, but it doubtless had a meaning to Chabrol deeper than mere admiration, and for all I know there may be countless Frenchmen who could recount at great length the importance of Brasssens to this story. Brassens could perhaps be described as 'the Leonard Cohen of France', and he has a large and devoted following. He sang with that extraordinarily charming accent of the South which one hears in Marcel Pagnol's old black and white films. The insistence with which Chabrol hammers away at the Brassens motif, his tomb, and its association with a murder, must mean something to someone, though it is all too subtle for me. One also wonders why Chabrol is so obsessed with cars going off cliffs? There must be so much more to all this than meets the uninformed eye. Perhaps some day someone will solve the mystery of Claude Chabrol, or should I say the many mysteries of the man, and why he himself seems to have been so haunted a personality. Or has this already been done by some eager French cinéaste and I just don't know about it?

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.

Argemaluco Even though I generally like the work of some modern French directors (such as, for example, Christophe Gans, Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Louis Leterrier), I have never been a big fan of the "classic masters" such as Eric Rohmer (1920-2010), Robert Bresson (1901-1999) or Claude Chabrol.However, I like French cop cinema, and because of that, I decided to surpass my prejudices and watch Bellamy, the most recent film from Chabrol, who was responsible of acclaimed films like Landru, Une Affaire de Femmes and Madame Bovary (which, by the way, are the only ones from him I had seen).As for Bellamy, it ended up being a very interesting film experience which is more interested in the interaction between the characters than in the mystery from the plot.It was an interesting contrast to watch Bellamy during the same weekend I suffered the horrible Knight and Day.In a certain sense, both belong to the category of "thrillers", but they could not have been more different with each other.Knight and Day treats its main characters as "props"...in other words, mere decorations with attractive faces in order to add a superfluous human element to the chases and explosions.On the contrary, Bellamy plunges us into the intimacy of its characters and is reluctant to fall into modern narrative formulas, preferring to use a slow rhythm which did not bother me at all, but I am sure that some spectators will find it boring.So, Bellamy is not for everyone; personally, I liked it pretty much mainly because of the solid performances and because I found the screenplay to be very well written.Nevertheless, Bellamy is not perfect: the screenplay has a few forced elements and there are some scenes which feel out of place; but despite that and in my case, the balance definitely fell on the positive side, and I recommend it with the warning that you do not have to expect a typical cop flick.So, Bellamy did not become me into a fan of Chabrol, but the best thing I can say about it is that it inspired me to look forward to his future work.

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.