Culture

A Robsessive Maupassant

March 05, 2012
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As the Twilight juggernaut that started the Rpatz phenomenon rolls to a not untimely end, 2008’s favourite pinup may be wondering what his next move should be. So far Pattinson’s CV—Harry Potter aside—lacks a palpable critical or commercial hit other than the vampire franchise that made his name. Nonetheless, things may be looking up for Pattinson: his upcoming David Cronenberg project Cosmopolis was voted the film that fans are most excited to see over the next year in a recent MTV poll, beating even the final Twilight installment. Optimists may see this as a vote for Pattinson’s future over his past. His latest film, an adaptation of Maupassant’s 1885 novel Bel Ami, seems worlds away from his work in Twilight.

Where Twilight’s earnest romance sees its heroine’s heart (quite literally) stopped by a kiss from her beau, Bel Ami has cynical protagonist Georges Duroy seducing married society women solely for career and financial gains. If Pattinson was looking to move away from the albatross of Twilight’s Edward Cullen, Georges Duroy might have seemed like the ideal reinvention.

Unfortunately, Bel Ami slides towards Twilight territory within the first ten minutes. Pattinson is shown in a shot that pans up from his feet and lingers over his spread knees, before finally moving up to his face, brooding picturesquely in half-light. It is one of many moments in which the ghost of Edward Cullen looms large, seemingly as hard to slay in Pattinson’s subsequent film work as he is in the Twilight franchise itself.

Maupassant’s Duroy is described as looking as though he were “offering a permanent challenge to someone” and fondly recalls committing murder and extortion in his army days. Pattinson’s Duroy looks like he’d be hard pressed to beat one of his own 13-year-old fans in a fight. Instead of having “all the cockiness of a good-looking soldier” as he does in the novel, this Duroy seems uncomfortable in high society even as he ascends, his angst nailed in place by Pattinson’s Cullen-esque facial tics and grimaces.

But when Pattinson is able to shake off his Twilight mannerisms—which he does most successfully in scenes with Kristin Scott Thomas, whom his character despises—there is something more interesting. His rejection of Scott Thomas’s Virginie is convincingly savage, as is his rage when he discovers that his wife has been scheming behind his back. The more experienced supporting cast handle the occasionally ludicrous dialogue with elegance, though the women of this Bel Ami are more a carousel of wigs and bosoms than the flesh and blood creatures of the novel.

Duroy suffers a similar fate. What drives women to throw caution to the wind to purse him is never made clear, except that he has Robert Pattinson’s face. Ironically, this only serves to underline the fact that Duroy’s appeal—as an attractive but ultimately empty fantasy—may not be so far from Pattinson’s own at present. If Pattinson had hoped Bel Ami would put some distance between him and his most famous role, he may have chosen the wrong film.

More: Read Mark Cousins's letter to Robert Pattinson