Bel Ami

Georges Duroy arrives in 1890s Paris with no money and no profession, but plenty of ambition and a face that opens doors. Starting out in cramped lodgings, he trades on his charm to work his way into fashionable drawing rooms, becoming involved with several women of influence, including Madeleine Forestier, Clotilde de Marelle and Virginie Walters. A chance reunion with an old army acquaintance gives him his first opening, and before long he is earning a living as a journalist while manoeuvring through a society in which politics and the press compete for power. The nickname Bel Ami follows him from one admirer to the next as he climbs toward the wealth and standing he believes he deserves. The film adapts Guy de Maupassant's novel of the same name.

Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod direct from a screenplay by Rachel Bennette, with Robert Pattinson as Duroy and Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colm Meaney and Philip Glenister among the cast. Made for about nine million dollars, it stands as the first of the directing duo's two credited features, ahead of a filmed theatre production the following year.

The film drew a modest 4.7 out of 10 from critics across 91 reviews, while audiences on TMDB were somewhat kinder at 5.3 from 546 votes, a narrow gap suggesting neither group found much to celebrate. Its worldwide take of eight million dollars fell short of the nine million dollar budget.