Bel Ami (1955)

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Movie
Original title Bel Ami
Country of production France
Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1955
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Louis Daquin
script Louis Daquin,
Roger Vailland ,
Vladimir Pozner
production Les Films Malhesherbes

Projectograph film
( Josef W. Beyer )
music Hanns Eisler
camera Nicolas Hayer
cut Leontine Klicka
occupation

Bel Ami is a French-Austrian literary film adaptation by Louis Daquin from 1955. An alternative title of the film was Bel Ami, the womanizer of Paris , an alternative spelling Bel-Ami .

action

Paris , around 1880: the charming Georges Duroy returns to Paris from the troops in Africa . He is almost destitute, earns just enough to survive, lives with the light lady Rachel and has the iron will to rise in society. During a trip in the park he meets his former regimental comrade Forestier, who now works as the head of the political section of the Vie Française , which is published by banker Walter. In the park they both meet the rich Clothilde de Marelle, who Forestier confirms that she wants to appear for dinner tomorrow, where she hopes to see Duroy too. Forestier now feels compelled to invite Duroy.

In the evening party Duroy entertains brilliantly with his experiences from the regimental time. The women lie at his feet, including Clothilde, the wife of the publisher Walter and his daughter Suzanne. Publisher Walter wants to publish Duroy's experiences in a series of articles. The articles are supposed to be written by Duroy; he prefers to have fun with Rachel and at the end has the articles dictated by the well-written and eloquent Madeleine, Forestier's wife. Since Duroy takes the side of the Moroccans in the articles , the Moroccan bonds are bought by the readers and increase in value. When Walter feared losses, he canceled Duroy's article, but employed him as a writer of small everyday reports for the newspaper.

Duroy becomes the lover of Clothilde de Marelle. He tries to gain social power through her, but she soon feels exploited. When they both go to the Folies Bergère and Rachel sees Duroy there, he ignores her. Rachel makes it public that they were together last week, when Duroy had long since allowed Clothilde to hold her up, and she drives away in horror. Meanwhile, the newspaper succeeds in bringing down the government and having its favorite Laroche-Mathieu installed as foreign minister. An occupation of Morocco now seems to be the logical consequence.

Duroy now sticks to Madeleine Forestier, whom he ensnares. When Forestier died unexpectedly, Duroy married Madeleine in 1887 and was promoted to political editor of the Vie Française . He begins courting Walter's wife and also flirting with her daughter Suzanne, who loves him. Duroy gets caught up in a political intrigue. Walter and Laroche-Mathieu instruct him to suggest in articles about Morocco that France will not occupy the country. The value of the Moroccan bonds is falling and it is only from Mme. Walter that Duroy learns that everything was just a trick - Walter bought the bonds cheaply, Morocco is to be occupied.

At home, Duroy catches Madeleine and Laroche-Mathieu red-handed and immediately enforces a divorce. He tries to blackmail Walter with his knowledge of the Foreign Minister's private and political affairs. He wants the political leadership of the Vie Française , a parliamentary position and shares in the profit expected in Morocco. After a few days, Walter refuses and prefers to let Laroche-Mathieu drop out.

Duroy has long since discovered a more rewarding role in Suzanne and soon drops Mme. Walter, who believes she is his lover. Only Clothilde, who has come back, recognizes the game he is playing and takes revenge on behalf of all other women who have been betrayed by slapping him. When Duroy is dismissed by Walter and his knowledge of Laroche-Mathieu's machinations is no longer sufficient to blackmail him because of his dismissal as minister, he abducts Suzanne who adores him. He forces Walter to agree to a marriage, which only Walter's wife vigorously opposes. The couple is married. Among the audience in front of the church is Rachel, who realizes that the wily Duroy could even become a minister one day.

production

Bel Ami is a Franco-Austrian film adaptation of the novel Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant , which was previously filmed by Willi Forst in 1939 . In the French version, Jean Danet played the role of Georges Duroy.

Bel Ami was shot in the Rosenhügel film studios and premiered on April 9, 1955 in Vienna . In Germany it was first shown in theaters on February 8, 1957 (East German cinema) and August 23, 1957 (West German cinema).

At the time of its premiere, the film received an FSK-18 rating. He has now been approved as FSK 6.

criticism

The film-dienst described Bel Ami in 1957 as an "almost completely unsuccessful film":

“The script breaks down into barely connected episodes, the direction, although a Frenchman was won over, does not create any Parisian atmosphere, the infused music also remains expressionless. The ballad-like story drags on viscously and strings tastelessness and papery phrases together, only to finally dissolve completely. Johannes Heesters in the title role is the baddest thing about Bel Ami that can be imagined, and the other actors are not inferior to him. "

- film service 1957

The lexicon of international films published by film-dienst in 1990 wrote that Bel Ami, as an "emphatically socially critical ... Austrian ... version of the literary model [perhaps comes closer], ... but by no means [achieved] the charm and flair of the 1939 Forst film. ".

Cinema wrote something similar : “The remake of the 1939 original by Willi Forst adheres more closely to the literary model by Guy de Maupassant. That makes the satire more critical, but not necessarily original. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bel Ami . In: film-dienst , No. 36, 1957.
  2. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 1. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 299.
  3. ↑ See cinema.de