Bellamy (Claude Chabrol, 2009): France

Reviewed by Zach McClellan.  Viewed at Mann’s Chinese 1 Theatre, part of AFI Fest 2009.

France’s Claude Chabrol is a master of drama/mystery set within the lives of the middle to upper class.  Bellamy is no exception to his previous works with a film about a popular local detective, Paul Bellamy(Gérard Depardieu) who curiously investigates the case of wealthy man in an affair who has faked his own death.  At the same time, Paul has to deal with his younger, alcoholic half-brother, Jacques(Clovis Cornillac) who has come to spend vacation with him and his wife, Françoise(Marie Bunel).  The film has two different stories that Chabrol brilliantly intertwines and connects the two with the same image of a burnt, wrecked car at the bottom of an embankment at both the beginning and ending of the film.  The first story is that of Paul’s investigation into the life of a man(Jacques Gamblin) who sought out his help and who faked his own death to collect on the fraud and live the rest of his life happily with his beautiful mistress(Vahina Giocante).  The other story is about the drama that ensues when Jacques comes to visit, bringing along all of the emotions of a sibling rivalry between an older brother with a home and a life and a younger, alcoholic drifter of a brother.

I know that as an English speaking American with limited knowledge in the romance languages, I will get literal translations sometimes in subtitled foreign films and that some of the humor or the meaning is completely lost.  It may be true for  some parts this film, but the acting and dialogue charmed me anyways.  I’ve always been a fan of how the French seem to enjoy life to the fullest: good friends, good food, good wine, good times.  Since staying true to the middle to upper class as Chabrol usually does, the dialogue between Paul, his wife, his brother, and his friends over a bottle of wine is classically witty and funny.  The range of emotions the actors use is a true test to their talent in this film with both humor and drama permeating from every scene.  Depardieu is completely believable as a funny and charming local celebrity.  Cornillac, is a great mirror to Depardieu’s character and the chemistry between the actors as brothers really hit home with me, since I myself butt heads occasionally like any older brother does with his younger brother.  Bunel, who at the beginning of the film seems like Paul Bellamy’s rock, slowly reveals throughout the film that their marriage isn’t perfect and provides further mystery in a film about double-lives.  I fell in love with Giocante as the beautiful mistress after her first of only two scenes with dialogue.  She just oozed that classy French sexiness that can only be captured in film.

The film gets more and more intense near the end of the film with the investigation coming to a dissatisfying end, but the complications between the two brothers gets more and more heated.  Paul blows up in a rage after hearing that Jacques has made a copy of his car keys and taken his car out, but it isn’t about the car, it’s about their differences coming to Paul’s limit.  As Paul’s investigation continues, the audience gets the feeling through scenes of dialogue between Paul and his wife and Jacques and his wife, that the people he’s investigating may not be the only ones with double-lives.  I believe that Chabrol intentionally made any sort of affair between Jacques and Françoise vague, so you know just as much as Paul and don’t know how the truth to anything which is seen or said.  The end of the film may rest Paul’s thoughts, but the mystery below the surface of his family leaves with the audience.  Chabrol has created a drama which captivated me with its witty dialogue and constantly intriguing story.  I recommend this film.