No matter how well regarded a movie may be in on capacity or another, not every title will meet with equal success for every viewer. I admire the aim of filmmaker Christophe Honoré, evidently making this in response to a dust-up stemming from remarks by then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy. I think it's broadly well made from a technical standpoint, the cast is swell, and I like the music selected for the soundtrack.
I'd like to say I have more concrete praise to offer for 'La belle personne,' but frankly I'm coming up short. I can't remark on a novel I'm not personally familiar with, but I trust that Honoré and Gilles Taurand's screenplay is a reasonably faithful modern adaptation of 'La Princesse de Clèves.' I trust that Madame de La Fayette's novel is one that would be enjoyable and worth reading on its own merits. This film, however, does not impress.
The plot feels to me like nothing more than a vague, halfhearted, weak-kneed tableau of love gone astray in various ways at a high school. In my opinion it lacks even the potential to be more than that since Honoré's direction renders the tale with a flat, grey, even-keeled tone that means the drama just passes right on by, very unremarkable as it presents. Scenes are orchestrated, and dialogue written, with a blandness that makes it difficult at times to even discern which character is supposedly pining for another, or upset at another, or why. None of this is helped by - well, not the actors, but the casting. Folks: diversity is important in film-making. All the primary cast members are white; multiple male actors possess hair color, hair styles, dark eyes, and facial structures that are nearly identical, and one is marginally more distinguishable only because his hair is a little bigger. Who is who? Who is feeling what about whom? What, specifically, is the drama that we're not actually feeling? I'm not entirely sure. And there came a point where I also just didn't care. For all this, when the storytelling does distinctly (and sparingly) ramp up within the last third, it seems to come out of nowhere, and it doesn't especially matter.
There are five elements of 'La belle personne' that stand out to me in one way or another, in no particular order. The first is Honoré's inspiration. The second is a reference to the opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor'; I haven't seen many operas, but I absolutely love 'Lucia.' The third is the introduction of LGBTQ characters. The fourth is an instance of nudity. The fifth is a gaudy, laughably bad embellishment to the final few moments before the end credits roll. None of these have any significant bearing on the quality of this feature, or its possible entertainment value. I recognize a narrative that on paper should have been impactful and meaningful on some level, and enjoyable as a viewer, and I trust that it would be and has been so elsewhere. As it is, however, in my opinion this 2008 picture communicates its plot poorly, and is worse still at conveying those feelings that the plot should theoretically evoke. As has been true with other titles my first impulse was to say "I don't dislike this, I'm indifferent, and that's maybe worse." Yet for as feeble as this is in its storytelling, and given Honoré's intent to show that the source material matters in the twenty-first century? Well, sorry, but "dislike" is the appropriate verbiage after all.
I'd like to say I have more concrete praise to offer for 'La belle personne,' but frankly I'm coming up short. I can't remark on a novel I'm not personally familiar with, but I trust that Honoré and Gilles Taurand's screenplay is a reasonably faithful modern adaptation of 'La Princesse de Clèves.' I trust that Madame de La Fayette's novel is one that would be enjoyable and worth reading on its own merits. This film, however, does not impress.
The plot feels to me like nothing more than a vague, halfhearted, weak-kneed tableau of love gone astray in various ways at a high school. In my opinion it lacks even the potential to be more than that since Honoré's direction renders the tale with a flat, grey, even-keeled tone that means the drama just passes right on by, very unremarkable as it presents. Scenes are orchestrated, and dialogue written, with a blandness that makes it difficult at times to even discern which character is supposedly pining for another, or upset at another, or why. None of this is helped by - well, not the actors, but the casting. Folks: diversity is important in film-making. All the primary cast members are white; multiple male actors possess hair color, hair styles, dark eyes, and facial structures that are nearly identical, and one is marginally more distinguishable only because his hair is a little bigger. Who is who? Who is feeling what about whom? What, specifically, is the drama that we're not actually feeling? I'm not entirely sure. And there came a point where I also just didn't care. For all this, when the storytelling does distinctly (and sparingly) ramp up within the last third, it seems to come out of nowhere, and it doesn't especially matter.
There are five elements of 'La belle personne' that stand out to me in one way or another, in no particular order. The first is Honoré's inspiration. The second is a reference to the opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor'; I haven't seen many operas, but I absolutely love 'Lucia.' The third is the introduction of LGBTQ characters. The fourth is an instance of nudity. The fifth is a gaudy, laughably bad embellishment to the final few moments before the end credits roll. None of these have any significant bearing on the quality of this feature, or its possible entertainment value. I recognize a narrative that on paper should have been impactful and meaningful on some level, and enjoyable as a viewer, and I trust that it would be and has been so elsewhere. As it is, however, in my opinion this 2008 picture communicates its plot poorly, and is worse still at conveying those feelings that the plot should theoretically evoke. As has been true with other titles my first impulse was to say "I don't dislike this, I'm indifferent, and that's maybe worse." Yet for as feeble as this is in its storytelling, and given Honoré's intent to show that the source material matters in the twenty-first century? Well, sorry, but "dislike" is the appropriate verbiage after all.