AND LASTLY, A CLASSIQUE FRANÇAIS WITH "INSPECTOR BELLAMY"

As the opening credits rolled through, I felt I was slightly bemused by the combination of Gerard Depardieu, Inspector Bellamy and a mention at the Berlin film festival. I respect Gerard Depardieu deeply as an actor but somehow when the two are combined with Inspector Bellamy, it didn’t seem to fit. The DVD sleeve was pretty darn sneaky about the whole thing as well – it gave the impression of being a common or garden cop film; and this was partly the reason the award surprised me. But Claude Chabrol’s version of Inspector Bellamy (and let’s face it, I should have trusted him more) combines a very subtle, very understated and very beautiful film with an excited and unpredictable cop-show plotline with wonderful mood setting and witty dialogue. One leaves the film slightly unsure of what just happened other than the fact that whatever it was was very striking indeed.
Inspector Bellamy (Gerard Depardieu) is on holiday. He hates this fact with a passion one can only imagine. His loving wife Françoise longs for a cruise in Egypt but it is all she can do to persuade him to come out to their summer house in Nimes. So she is not best pleased when a mysterious stranger knocks at their summer house door demanding to see Inspector Bellamy about a case he could be interested in. The whole thing seems highly fishy but Bellamy is bored out of his wits so he decides to go along with it. The man claims to have killed someone to be with his mistress, “the woman of his dreams” but he is obviously lying about something or other… On the home front, as if the lack of Egyptian cruises was not enough, Bellamy’s brother Jacques has come to stay. Jacques is constantly broke, has a bad habit of “borrowing” various things of Bellamy’s be it cars, guns or other people’s money without asking and drinks almost constantly. But what can you do? The man is family, and Paul Bellamy feels responsible towards his much younger brother. What sort of shape will Bellamy be in at the end of the holiday? And will he be able to get to the bottom of this mystery murder? If it was a murder that is….
Ok, so the film starts off nice and slow. Witty repartee and typical scenes of a long-married couple bickering seem to promise something light-hearted and mildly exciting. Witty repartee, by the way, will be something that is very present through the whole film. Clever comebacks and wordplay are scattered in the least-likely places, making them all the more appreciated and setting a sometimes slightly acid tone. The whole “murder mystery” angle is very cleverly done with some rather nifty flashbacks; the story itself actually seems rather mediocre I know, but the “real story” is so confused and convoluted that as we follow Bellamy trying to make head or tale of a seemingly simple affair we completely lose track of where on earth the whole thing might end… What I loved best though is the “contretemps” created with the home angle. Jacques is not your typical “drunken oaf” from the world of vaudeville, oh no, he is a very real character with very real personal problems and explodes into Bellamy’s life almost costing him his marriage in the process. It is a really, really good portrait of family life, “problem” relatives and trying to deal with both.
Chabrol gives us the “point” he wants to make right at the end with a quote from W.H. Auden : “There is always another story; there is more than meets the eye.” And in this film, categorically nothing is what it originally seems. A great choice with those who prefer a little meat on their movies – if you get my drift. And don’t insist on “happy” films…