1. First part of the feature in better quality, and if you don’t want to watch the review. (click 720p HD)
.
2. Full video. Review at 2.45. The woman is pretty tough on the script and character, the guy is more complimentary about Rob. (remember, reviews are just personal opinions, go see it and decide for yourself.)
From DigitalSpy:
The year is 1890 and a young soldier, Georges Duroy, returns to France from the battlefields of Algeria. He’s played by Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson, who revels in the opportunity to shed his pin-up image and embark on a bonk-a-thon through the Parisian elite.
Pattinson’s most famous screen character Edward Cullen may sustain himself on blood, but there’s something equally vampiric about his portrayal of Duroy – a man with cold, darting eyes whose unquenchable thirst is for power and status. Driven by a life in poverty, Duroy’s chance encounter with old army colleague Charles Forestier (Philip Glenister) leads him into higher social circles and a job as a newspaper writer (despite being barely literate).
Here are scans of the positive Bel Ami review in Flair Magazine. Thanks to Robert Pattinson Belgium for these:
A great Bel Ami review from Whatsonstage.com. Here’s an excerpt:
Bel Ami is a sumptuous transposition to the screen (by no means the first) of Guy de Maupassant’s fin de siecle Parisian novel starring Robert Pattinson as Georges Duroy, the dissolute French soldier who rises to the top of society and journalism by the simple expedient of sleeping with the wives of his employers.
It’s a deeply sour tale of having your cake and eating it, and it’s beautifully played and sumptuously costumed. And you can’t fail to notice in these rocky days for newspaper ethics, that Georges moves sideways from his diary of a cavalryman in the Algerian war to head of gossip on the broadsheet; he draws a line, though, at taking his share of the profits when war-mongering becomes a sort of insider trading.
As a debut movie, and made for the comparative pittance of nine million euros, it’s almost indecently good and highly accomplished. And although Pattinson twitches his nostrils a little too often, he’s spot on as the louche lothario.
For the rest of interview click here
5 must-watch March movies: Bel Ami, John Carter, Hunger Games and more
If you’re expecting a leisurely month for movies in March then think again, because the next 31 days are packed full of exciting treats for cinema fans. Twilight’s Robert Pattinson will get down and dirty for the sex-stuffed Bel Ami, while spring will hold a mini-blockbuster season of its own with the debut of Disney’s sci-fi epic John Carter and the eagerly-awaited action film The Hunger Games.Digital Spy previews five must-see movies for March below:
Bel Ami
Release Date: March 9
Why you should see it: Robert Pattinson may not have been the most prolific cinematic bed-hopper as Twilight’s chaste vampire Edward Cullen, but that all changes in this steamy adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s French novel. R-Patz plays a young man who climbs the Parisian social ladder by sleeping with Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristen Scott Thomas.
An interesting review from Beames on Film. Here’s an excerpt. To read the rest CLICK HERE!
I’m actually pretty conflicted as to how to feel about ‘Bel Ami’, an intermittently effective and highly sexed adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s 19th century novel co-directed by British theatre directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. It’s a little verbose in places and features either too much or too little of the book’s politics (I’m not sure which), yet it’s pretty enough to look at and features some cracking supporting actors. In it ‘Twilight’ star Robert Pattinson takes the central role of Georges Duroy – an ambitious and spiteful man who rises Barry Lyndon-style from poverty to the pinnacle of Parisian high-society through self-delusion and amorality.
For the first half-hour I sat convinced that Pattinson had been miscast: aside from looking a little too young for a war veteran (one whose peers all seem to be middle aged), Pattinson’s permanent snarl and the infinite emptiness of his eyes seem to make a mockery of the fact that his character inspires so much amorous affection – even if we’re well aware he engenders this reaction from the ladies off-camera. Yet this seems to be precisely the point, making Pattinson an inspired choice: the ladies like Georges because he is pretty, but actually he is an empty vessel. Lazy, petty, illiterate, lacking social graces and disloyal, French high-society assumes something lies behind his eyes that simply isn’t there. The jury is out on whether Pattinson has much range as an actor, but he makes for an oddly compelling Georges.
Here’s the great review for the Special Edition Blu-ray by Collider:
My favorite feature on the Blu-Ray special edition is the six-part, 90 minute long MAKING-OF-DOCUMENTARIES. This was the first time I saw how every important scene was positioned together. Another awesome feature about the documentaries is that they can be played alone or in picture-in-picture mode alongside the film starting from “Love Death Birth”, “The Wedding”, “The Honeymoon”, “The Wolf Pack”, “The Pregnancy” and “The Birth”. All of these special features walk you through the entire process of making the movie with the writers, creators, and cast. My favorite out of the six part documentaries is definitely “The Pregnancy.” Watching Kristen Stewart’s transformation, the prosthetics that were used on set, and the making of her uncanny body double were all wonderful. If you’re someone who loves watching and learning about the pre-production, production and post-production processes, you will thoroughly enjoy these documentaries.
Here’s a new Bel Ami review by Eye For Film
For Guy de Maupassant’s classic novel, there couldn’t be a more timely point at which to arrive on the big screen. With its themes of political and journalistic corruption and the prospect of an unpopular foreign war, it’s as relevant now as it ever was, and in many ways it functions as a picture of transition between the oft-romanticised 18th century and the brutal modern age.
For many, of course, the main reason to see this will be star Robert Pattinson. He certainly doesn’t disappoint, but largely because he knows how to play an unlikeable character well, and it’s anyone’s guess how fans will react to that. He’s often shirtless, of course, because all young Georges – the bel ami of the title – has to sell when he arrives in Paris is his body. But Georges isn’t looking to scrape a living on the streets. The other thing he possesses is ambition. By seducing rich women, he fancies he might find a means of manipulating rich men and climbing up the social ladder.
Here’s a review by KillerFilm.com about the Water for Elephants DVD:
Director Francis Lawrence paints a lush portrait of circus life during the Great Depression in the film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants. It’s a gripping look at the gritty world behind the glamorous big top. And to survive in that world, you have to stand up for what you believe in.
Here’s a great WFE review by What Culture
Of course Water For Elephants was always going to carry the subtitle of What Robert Pattinson Did Next, and as such the myriad fansites dedicated to the Twilight star (my favourite of which is called SpunkRansom) quickly took it to their hearts. But look beyond the name that is top-billed, alongside Reese Witherspoon and everyone’s favourite German Christoph Waltz, and you’ll find a film worthy of watching on its own terms.
There is something fundamentally old-fashioned about the way the romance plays out on screen, and that vintage feel has a lot to do with the authenticity of the period setting, down to the most minute of details. There is a lot of time in the Extra Features spent detailing the near obsessive level of research and painstaking reconstructions that formed the basis for the production and costume designs, and that diligence really shines in the final film.
But Water For Elephants deserves better than that: it is beautifully designed, and wonderfully executed thanks to a head-turning combination of director Francis Lawrence, production designer extraordinaire Jack Fisk and the hugely talented cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Together, and along with costume designer Jacqueline West, the team create a lavish canvas on which the acting work can be done.
RPattz as he is hideously known to fans and media outlets that should know better has done very well to make Water For Elephants in a gap between Twilight projects, and it stands as a timely reminder that if allowed, the young actor could very well make a second go of an acting career after the Stephanie Meyer franchise has disappeared from the multiplexes for the last time. Though presumably, he’s going to need to make an “off-brand” choice that once and for all puts a stake through the heart of Edward Cullen.
Read the rest of the review over at What Culture
Thinking of Rob 