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| Bel Ami Poster |
DAMAGE CONTROL to Major Tom!
DAMAGE CONTROL to Major Tom!
Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod are good ol boys running a theatre company that does Shakespeare, Wilde, Williams, Inge, O'Neill in classic productions of a repertory theatre type experience. Much like Hedgerow in Philadelphia and Jersey and the semi-professional performing groups.
If you want to see cutting edge performance you go to Elizabeth LeCompte in New York City. She was married to Willem Defoe for many years and he starred in productions and kept them afloat.
She received a MacArthur Grant. Donnellan and Ormerod are more like provincial theatre in say Brooklyn, Queens, that perform the tried and true that we all love, but will never challenge our reality to uncomfortable levels. Even Godot does not do that now the way Beckett did in the 1950's when I used to go so often.
These guys have no stature and are middle aged classic repertory theatre people shoestringing it on grants and fund raising. The nostalgic plays we love do not support themselves and their productions, while classically excellent, they are what they are.
Donnellan and Ormerod saw a way to get out of this and into the big time world of critical filmmaking with a costume drama with great name recognition. This enticed the female leads and Rob Pattinson.
Pattinson was their ticket to some fame and future in filmmaking. Just like Lawrence and Scummit, they are riding Rob's coat tails hanging on to the gold ring on the merry-go-round.
For some reason fangirls think they are serious players. They are not.
They are hoping to be by riding in on the horse named Rob Pattinson. They have changed the book to dilute its message in favor of SOFT PORN using Rob Pattinson's face, back muscles and bare ass, and thrusting, thrusting, thrusting! They are riding their horse home to win the race. This is a "fucking metaphor"! This is blatantly obvious to all the reviewers, but they criticize Rob's performance and his silly fans who want nekkid Rob and thrusting, thrusting, thrusting, rather than the pimping of Donellan and Ormerod, who also want nekkid Rob and thrusting, thrusting, thrusting!
There is no doubt that part way through shooting Rob connected the dots.
He has been there many times before. He was a model. He knows when his face and body are being exploited. And they are in Bel Ami. These guys are slicker than Lawrence and Scummit, slicker than Condon who did the same.
The only good film he has made so far is Remember Me where he controlled casting, the script, production. He did not control distribution but this is the only time we have seen him in control. He knows what he is doing and he has been used by inferior directors. But he is complicit in this.
Cronenberg has nothing to get from Rob and everything to give. Just wait.
Watch and learn.
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