London Film Fest Day 6 - BELLAMY

BELLAMY is an interminable and deeply dull French cop movie directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Gerard Depardieu as the eponymous retired "flic". The movie lazily meanders through life in Nimes, where a sort-of crime is sort-of solved or rather pieced together by Bellamy through a series of happy coincidences. For example, Bellamy's wife's dentist happens to sell his car to the police chief who happens to be boffing the mistress of the alleged murderer. The mistress is - obviously - the pedicurist of Bellamy's wife. Oh, and the alleged murderer's wife's son is tutored by Bellamy's wife. The upshot is that there is no tension nor are there any steel interviews. People give up info over a cup of coffee. And anyway, the info isn't that exciting.

I just can't make BELLAMY out. What is Chabrol trying to achieve? The plotting is sub-TV quality and the production lifeless and wearisome. I swear only Depardieu's innate charm kept me from walking out.

BELLAMY played Berlin 2009. It opened earlier this year in France, Belgium, Argentina, Germany and Austria.

A COMEDY OF POWER/L'IVRESSE DU POUVOIR - thin

Here we have another collaboration between veteran French auteur, Claude Chabrol, DP Eduardo Serra and acress, Isabelle Huppert. I am a little tired of seeing Huppert playing these demanding, emotionally frigid, manipulative women - but then again, she does it so well! In this movie she plays a stern magistrate investigating corruption at the highest reaches of French corporate and political life. It is wonderful to see her cut these macho businessman down to size. Naturally, she has a devoted but wounded husband, who is becoming tired of the nocturnal studying and bodyguards. The emotional drama is well played, as are the occasional razor-sharp dialogues between the magistrate and her victims. However, the movie lacks a coherent narrative drive or any sense of the scope and gravity of the corporate malfeasance under the microscope. Screen-writer Odile Barksi fails her cast.

A COMEDY OF POWER played Berlin 2006 and was released in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Argentina, Slovenia and Italy last year. It opened in the US, Mexico, Singapore, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark and Spain earlier in 2007. It is currently playing in the UK and is available on Region 1 DVD.