Inspector Bellamy

I don't get all of the griping in some of the other comments. It's a very good film! it makes you think & I never expected the ending! Whoa! Plus, it has Depardieu!! Come on! Quit complaining & enjoy!

The idea of Chabrol's last film was to create a new detective in the style of Inspector Jules Maigret of the Paris Police. Great idea, great director, great star (Gerard Depardieu) so we should expect a winner. And yet the film disappoints. In film, Maigret has been played by a host of characters, but perhaps none better than Michael Gambon in the TV series. Maigret is canny, yet tough and humane at the same time. He can trick a criminal as well as share a bottle of wine with him.Inspector Bellamy does not have either the wit, psychological insight, instinct, or just plain goodness that we expect from Maigret. As the Inspector, Gerard Depardieu seems to be sleepwalking through the film. Indeed if there is any shooting star in the picture, it is Bellamy's wife Francoise who is superbly played by Marie Bunel.There are two stories being played out at the same time. On the one hand is a visit by a man who wants to confess his crime. On the other hand is a visit by the Inspector's half-brother who has a history of being a loser and sponging off his better situated relative.In the shadows is always Francoise, the Inspector's wife. The spark of the bitter feud between the brothers is that Inspector Bellamy apparently took all the "luck" when they were growing up. And that luck IS Francoise. Not only did she bring her husband a comfortable amount of money for him to live on... but she brings her husband her intuitive insights about the minds of the criminals under investigation.The ultimate theme of the movie is that what we observe on the surface is not the reality at all...yet that theme has been done better in both American, French, and Japanese films.For those interested in Chabrol's body of work, my favorite film is "The Story of Women." So, if you do choose to watch Inspector Bellamy, keep an eye on the women...they seem to be running the show.

I started watching this film based on the synopsis which described it as a "tense thriller". There was nothing tense or thrilling about it. I shut it off halfway through. It slowly meanders along with an Inspector who refuses to turn a murder suspect and his accomplish in to the authorities. For what reason? His own curiosity about them and their crime? If I had stuck around, I would have found out. Fortunately, I had much better things to do than waste another hour on this sad excuse for an exciting crime story.

Does not play on my cd machine