Inspector Bellamy

I suppose when I rate this movie more highly than many other people it's because I haven't had enough exposure to Claude Chabrol. For me this falls under the category "French movie," not "Chabrol movie." So those who are less discriminating may like the movie as much as my wife and I did.

European movies are better than American to the extent that they show ordinary people's lives lived at any ordinary pace. They're worse when they indulge in incomprehensible or surrealistic profundities. "Bellamy" teeters on the edge of the latter now and then, but gives us many pleasures of the first kind. It's a murder mystery, sort of, but more of the "what happened?" than the "who did it?" variety. In addition, it's a view into the life of Inspector Bellamy and the people in his life. His relationship with his wife is simple but enviable (perhaps improbably so). Marie Bunel is perfect as the wife.

The film does have some irritating attempts at profundity, but they are not too distracting. It's more distracting wondering how Gerard Depardieu, the Inspector, can have a brother played by an actor 20 years younger that he supposedly grew up with.

Marie Bunel as Françoise Bellamy is the real keeper in this movie. In a world where nothing is as it seems, she is just as much an enigma. The scenery is the second best co-star in this flick.

The movie does move slow and if Gérard Depardieu gets any fatter he won't fit on the television screen. It will become a requirement that his movies must be watched at the cinema.

His performance is uninspiring. Save this movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

What would you expect for a man that sums himself up by saying, "I'm not a monster, I'm just a man who wants to pee."

In Nimes, Inspector Paul Bellamy (Gérard Depardieu) is spending vacation with his wife Françoise Bellamy (Marie Bunel), who wants to travel. When a stranger unexpectedly arrives at his house, he gives his cellphone number to Françoise. The workaholic Bellamy contacts the man and learns that he is the insurance agent Emile Leullet (Jacques Gamblin), who attempt to fraud the insurance company faking his death in a car accident. He intended to use the insurance money to leave his wife and flee with his mistress Nadia Sancho (Vahina Giocante) with a new face got through plastic surgery and the alias Noël Gentil. He says that the charred body found in the car is from the homeless Denis Leprince that wanted to die and hijacked his car in a nearby restaurant. Meanwhile, Bellamy's half-brother Jacques Lebas (Clovis Cornillac), who is an alcoholic loser and crook, comes to their house and stays there, Bellamy spends his time discussing with Jacques, socializing with Françoise her gay dentist and his friend, and interviewing Leulett, his wife Mrs, Leulett, his mistress and Leprince's former girlfriend.

"Bellamy" (2009) is a dull movie by Claude Chabrol about the vacation of the efficient Inspector Bellamy. When a stranger asks for help from him, he cannot resist and spends his time investigating the case. His alcoholic half-brother arrives at home, his vacations are fulfilled by problems and traumas from their childhood. The plot is only reasonable, despite the good acting, but the swam song of the great Claude Chabrol deserved a better movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Bellamy"

Unlike in most frantic American crime stories, France's Inspector Bellamy leisurely rambles about its characters as if they were the story, not the crime. And indeed they are: Inspector Paul Bellamy (Gerard Depardieu) is as uncomfortable with the crime subject's different personas as he is with his own past, most notably with his half-brother, Jacques Lebas (Clovie Cornillac), who shows up to renew their sibling rivalry.

"French Hitchcock" director Claude Chabrol selects each shot for its maximum information, frequently illuminating more than one character, more than one motive. For the French, the highest incentive for crime or a happy life seems to be love, and Chabrol explores the various twists infidelity and family can toss into the crime solving mix. True to his New Wave roots, Chabrol lards each image with meaning while couching the story in a languid realism, less edgy now than years ago, but still full of life's ironies while life is lived out in an almost mundane fashion.

More interesting than the multiple personalities of the suspect is the intimate dance of the hero, Bellamy, and his attractive wife, Francoise (Marie Bunel), who provides him with intellectual companionship, sexual longing, and a bit of jealousy for good measure. The lovely chemistry between Depardieu and Bunel reminds me of how authentic a good character study like this can be in the hands of a master director. While Depardieu has developed a belly beyond reason, he still delivers the emotional goods, just as retired Inspector Bellamy can successfully solve a crime.

Imagine all this richness without discernible CGI. For good reason: The emphasis is on the husband-wife relationship, not the crime. So it is in most European cinema, or at least it seems that way to an American critic who has seen enough of his country's gadget-centered films.

I have not been exposed to a.lot of Claude Chabrol films, but the ones I have seen are very good. He was considered a master of mystery, and this is the last film he did before his death in 2010.

It stars Gérard Depardieu, and I have more than a few of his performances (La Vie en Rose, Paris, Je T'Aime, Mesrine: Killer Instinct). What I really like about Depardieu's role in the film is that he, and the film, are what I would call normal. We see life as it really exists, without gimmicks and special effects. It's a plain whodunit, with a plain detective. Marie Bunel, as his wife, adds immensely to this picture of normalcy.

The crime is only incidental in the film. It is really about relationships - The inspector (Depardieu) and his wife, the inspector and his bum of a brother, two mistresses who are not the mistresses of the people who think they are - forget the crime and focus on the people.