Spunk Ransom visitor Astrid emailed in her review of “Bel Ami” after seeing it at the Berlin Film Festival. She said,

Saturday night in Berlin, second screening of “Bel Ami”: Since some reviews in German newspapers were downright nasty, I was actually a little nervous before the movie and talked myself up to just openly accepting in case they were right. I went with a friend who is not the slightest bit biased (as I am), since she doesn´t for the life of her understand the fuss about “that Twilight-stuff” and said she´d always go to see Christina Ricci and was curious as to “how that Pattinson dude would do”.

Well, after 10 minutes into the movie she elbowed me and hissed “Brilliant movie, good choice of yours!” D And it is with great relief and a small heap of pride of “The Pretty” that I can state: “Bel Ami” is indeed a good movie. Apparently the German journalists and “film critics”, who felt the need to trash-talk it, either have a case of sour grapes or just can´t accept that a film with “that vampire” could be anything but ridiculous. As if you wouldn´t be taken seriously among your peers if you praised anything beyond Romanian arthouse-movies about fatally ill Lesbians who ride through the desert on a motorcyle whilst having colourful hallucinations… well, you know what I mean. After I left the cinema I just snorted about how some article had not only complained about Rob´s facial expressions, but also about the movie being “stuffy”, since to many scenes take place inside. Errm, yeah, might be because the main story-line is just taking place in parlors, boudoirs and the like?! What should the directors have done, taking it all out into the open?! Oh, come on…

But enough of self-important “critics” and back to “Bel Ami”: I crushed on Christina; how she holds a candle for Georges is heartbreaking. The last glimpse of the last scene of the movie actually made me sigh loudly. Uma Thurman is amazing as a beautiful amazon and a brilliant political being who just happens to encounter the bad fate of being born a woman in a time where she needs to hide her brains behind her husbands. Kristin Scott Thomas really makes you take pity on her when she dissolves into a begging heap of love-sick misery. As for Rob: he can indeed hold his own among all these women. His character switches from playing to being played and back and at any time, you get where Georges is coming from. You don´t necessarily like him, but Rob manages to make his wicked ways transparent. I thought there was the one or other insecurity, but who would fault him for that, it must be extremely hard to not feel scrutinized every second of the day (since he´s, you know, “that vampire”). I can´t wait to see Rob in a role that isn´t as pre-defined as the legendary bel ami (hello, Mr. Packer!), since I think he will be able to get rid of the last bit of self-consciousness then as to what people will think about him as an actor. But seeing him spitting with hate, setting his determined charms on another victim, realizing he´s been fooled, snarling at poor Virginie at his feet … hot damn.

On the down-side: I wish the directors had changed some of the close-ups for larger shots, I would have loved to see some more body-language here and there. And sometimes I was really unhappy with the script: for instance, I don´t think many people would be able to understand the politics the storyline evolves around. Also, there are interspersed flashbacks of Georges brooding inside his attic that in 3 out of 4 times confused me because I couldn´t guess whether they really were flashbacks and what they were supposed to mean. Kristin Scott Thomas falling for the bel ami also came a bit as a surprise like “did I miss a scene?!”.

But, all in all: Bel Ami is a brilliant story (worth the read!) and this movie-adaption didn´t disappoint at all – a vibrant period drama, captivating til the last minute, wonderful actors in an awesome theatrical setting (you do realize where the directors are from…).

I did proudly recommend it at breakfast with friends today without internally adding “and also, Robert Pattinson is kind of my hobby, so I think everything he does is just marvelous and maybe that´s why I like the movie…?”.

And, last but not least: He IS so pretty, even in long johns!

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