User Reviews

How Much Do You Love Me? is a romantic sex comedy featuring the irresistible Italian actress Monica Bellucci as the leading actress, with veteran actor Gerard Depardieu and Bernard Campan as the 2 leading guys in the drama, which involves weak heart, sex, lottery, blackmail and tonnes of laughter.

Francois (Campan) is a civil servant living in a bachelorhood. He strike lottery and he set his eyes on Daniela (Bellucci), a beautiful prostitute. He makes an offer of paying her 100,000 euros per month to stay with him until he used up his cash award of 4 million euros. She moves in with him and everything begins from a role play of husband and wife. As they goes on, he develop feelings for her. However, Charly (Depardieu), a mafia boss, who was the lover of Daniela, steps in. He opens up a proposal for Francois: to buy the freedom of Daniela from Charly at 4 million euros.

Director Bertrand Blier has spiced up the film with tonnes of laughter, with a touch of slapstick. While some of the scenes might seems to be exaggerating, it is actually not. At a certain level, he has brought up the loneliness of a middle age bachelor faced, from mentally to physically.

Monica Bellucci is the focus of How Much Do You Love Me. Once again, she takes up the sexually challenging role of a prostitute after Malena and Irreversible. She swings in between Campan and Depardieu, where the former is a civil servant paying for the service, and the latter her lover. Swining in between the 2 men spices up the later part of the film, where it is unmissable.

Depardieu, however, seems to be pulling the whole film down, where the role of Charly the mafia boss seems to be too dull and boring. Though he might be trying hard to play the role of mafia boss, more effort can be put in. Campan, on the other hand, has room for improvement, though it can be seen that effort has been put in.

Do not expect any raunchy sex scene in How Much. Instead, do expect the witty and humorous sex jokes and argument in a scene where Bellucci, Campan and Farida Rahouadj (who plays Francois's neighbor) gather outside the house for a dispute.

This movies worths 6/10. And it is a good movie to spice up a boring weekend night.

Yes, I confess that my approach to this movie was not so enthusiastic, Mrs. Bellucci is not my favorite actress. But the director (Blier) and Gerard Depardieu are a warranty, in my opinion. The movie is a "divertissment" played around a man, who try to buy the love of a magnificent whore(Bellucci), stating he win the price at the lottery,and so offering her a 100 thousand euros per month salary. So, could this indecent proposal buy her love? and what's about the pimp(Depardieu)? The plot has the capacity to stay light, the music helps a lot to accept the events as a play, the life is surprisingly wonderful, love is the mystery. And Monica Bellucci is a full joy, a daydream for all the middle aged, insignificant men searching for a reason to dream.

How Much Do You Love Me? examines that emotion called Love, or what it's perceived to be. Will you make pretend and move in with someone? Are you loving someone because of his riches? Or because of his huge wiener or her hot body? Is it purely lust or love? And how in the world do fugly people snag all the hot chicks too? Between money and love, which would you choose (and taking too long to decide doesn't earn you brownie points)? Like Pretty Woman, only with less candy fluff, how can someone fall in love with a whore? (Ok, so it might sound politically incorrect, but that's how the movie plays it out)

A regular joe, Francois, falls for a prostitute at a bar. Played by Monica Belluci, Daniela is the obsession of Francois, as he engages her services for 100,000 Euros to live with him for a month (she charges 150 Euros a night, so work out the math) until he runs out of cash. A balding man who just won the lottery of 4 million Euros and some, he sure knows how to pick up and select his women.

Soon after, Francois becomes the envy of everyone (so is Vincent Cassell, but I digress), as friends like his personal doctor advises him to go easy on his escapades because of his weak heart. But in this black comedy, unfortunate events befall upon those who try to keep the couple apart. It's a tad interesting too as the movie plays out the fantasies of these nay- sayers, as they too lust after Daniela in secret.

There's a twist to all the madness, and the final revelation will make you go "ahh!" as the scheme is unveiled to a whacked out near ending sequence (do I love that sexy dance move). However, as do most art movies go, the ending leaves much to be interpreted in many ways. The visuals are beautiful to look at, and no, I'm not just talking about Bellucci here, although I'd rather watch her in action than the other old babe Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct 2. Blended with a lot of jazz, it has a bluesy feel to it all, punctuating melancholic mood throughout as felt by the characters.

And it's the three key characters who keep the storyline interesting. A regular bloke buying his way to a woman's heart. A woman who whores because she wants to (and probably satisfying her insatiable appetite for sex), and her gangster husband Charly (Gerard Depardieu) who allows her to do what she wants to, as his interpretation of love is the clichéd "if you love her set her free. If she returns she's yours" belief. In the end, love is also about respect, and that's the lesson Charly needed to learn.

It's plenty talk about love, sex and even orgasms, and the highlight is probably the three way negotiation on the table as Francois and Charly haggle the price over Daniela. Can love be attached with a price? How much is it worth? The plenty of ah-peks in the audience will probably have an answer to this question, and no doubt, ensure this movie's longevity in local screens.

I've watched the Depardieu-Blier films all the way back to VALSEUSES and enjoyed them so I came at this one believing all the knocking comment must be wrong.

Well it's certainly not a dead loss. Campan registers in a tricky role acquiring Pigalle poule de luxe Bellucci and taking her back to his office worker flat, despite his shaky health and down at heel associates and this part plays quite well.

Surprisingly, it's when an aged Depardieu doing "vieux jeu con" shows up that things become strained. Well with a record like this, these guys are entitled to one screw up.

The film is by no means a write-off with the changes of light, background and costume within scenes getting attention until you realize that, if they have any meaning, Blier is not going to share it with us. The opera score has oddity value and the small parts are striking. Farida Rahouadj's turn as the Northern neighbour is particularly attention getting.

It's a pity to find this one getting international showing on the strength of its star power, in place of more imposing product.

I love French cinema, but I was rather disappointed by this movie. The most positive thing about this movie is beautiful and erotic Bellucci taking her clothes off but the plot is so poor I can't understand Gerard Depardieu playing such a one-dimensional person.

The dialogs are sometimes ridiculous, maybe unintentionally because of the bad German synchronization I watched. It is not enough to play classical opera music instead of creating a convincing dramaturgy and script.

But to mention some positive aspects as well, there are plenty of breathtaking stills like Bellucci sitting in the window of the bar in Pigalle or "Francois" and "Daniela" at the beach, so the movie offers, as French cinema often does, excellent aesthetic quality. Accepting that this is cinema showing totally artificial characters, you might have a good time watching this movie.

In Paris, after winning the lottery, the clerk François (Bernard Campan) goes to a bar in Pigalle and offers one hundred thousand Euros per month to the prostitute Daniela (Monica Bellucci) to live with him until the end of his money. François is a lonely man, with heart problems and Daniela stays with him for eight days. Then, she decides to come back to her man, the mobster Charly (Gérard Depardieu), but she misses François and returns to his place. But once a whore, always a whore.

The promising "Combien Tu m'Aimes?" is a great deception: having Monica Bellucci, Gérard Depardieu and Bernard Campan in the cast, and directed by Bertrand Blier, this "dramatic romantic comedy" has a weird development and a confused and disappointing open conclusion. I honestly did not understand the last quarter of this movie, which is simply awful. The screenplay wastes a good and original idea, and the character of Gérard Depardieu is absolutely dull and ridiculous. The beauty of Monica Bellucci, even with forty-one years, is the best this mislead movie can offer. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Por Amor ou Por Dinheiro?" ("For Love or For Money?")

Body (and look!) of Monica Belucci is stunning (as usually), but her role is poor - charming whore who wants to have respect and love, but finding that discovers it boring, escapes back to his soulless gigolo (Depardieu), and misses back her lover's gentle touch, returns to face a truth that he isn't rich... one truly understands frustration of other women at dancing party - "why everybody loves her?!" - again because of that body and those eyes. On the other hand, playing of Campan (Francois) is astonishing, it is probably on of his best roles (regretfully it was my first encounter), though I wish him t have better ones too! overall good movie to watch it once, and I'm sure every man returns to it to observe that beauty, that stunning whore... 7, not more... . Milena was something so much sweeter...

I would probably tear "Combien tu m'aimes?" to shreds, if it weren't for gorgeous Monica Belluci. She's perfect as a prostitute, Daniela who decides to change her life. To my mind, she's the sexiest actress in the showbiz and all guys will obviously like this flick as Monica exposes her beautiful body here. Nevertheless, I cannot write anything else good about this film. I found writing terrible. The movie consists of numerous accidental threads and, therefore, is very incoherent. I think that screenwriters really had nothing interesting or particularly funny to say. All men are simply overwhelmed by Daniela throughout the flick and it's generally the whole plot. The movie is kept in tiring in the long run grotesque style and some scenes are wordy. I couldn't stand operatic music which was unnecessary in this supposedly light comedy. To summarize, this French movie should solely see ardent fans of Monica Belluci. I'm numbered among them and wish Italian actress chose better projects.

There's hardly a Monica Bellucci movie where the main storyline does not involve her incredibly seductive body.. it is just absolutely, totally impossible to ignore. She is a woman most any man (and lots of women) would find physically addictive. Whatever the scene you just cannot take your eyes off her.. what she says holds little interest, and it's not that she does a bad job acting.. it's just not the main reason she is on screen (you don't watch her films for the story). Partial or full nudity is the linchpin of her acting experience. She was amazing in this film ten years ago.. she is now at 50yo, still amazing today, and will be the same in another decade. It's almost as if women like her are somewhat immune to the aging process. "The world's biggest power is... the beauty of a woman"... and Monica is a nuclear weapon.

What a disappointment. I was expecting much more from a film coming from Bertrand Blier, who has made Tenue de Soir in the 80s, and a bunch of reasonable films since. Having Depardieu and the mind-blowing Monica Belucci in the film was not certainly enough.

All the film turns around Monica Belucci. Sure, such a beauty makes man die for and can make them pay millions or kill for, the issue is that the characters in this film seem to be willing to do exactly this, and this is the whole story, not much more. One of the reasons of failure is I believe the cast. Bernard Campan in the role of the gray clerk who wins the lottery and intents to buy a beautiful Italian whore for the rest of his life is lacking charisma, and there is no chemistry between him and Monica Belucci. In other words, I can certainly understand him, but I cannot understand her, and the whole intended love story is less than credible.

All around dance a bunch of characters who fail to be coherent enough, or funny, or to be able to collect any sympathy. Even Gerard Depardieu who is an actor who seemed not to be able to do wrong looks like mis-cast. Actually all characters seem under-developed, and if it were not for Monica Belucci's beauty and talent (almost completely wasted here) the film would have sunk into complete failure. It gets a few stars however, and all belong to Belucci.

I deeply disagree with the plot summary written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I guess this is just an opinion of a south-American male. I can clearly see that respect and dignity for women is lacking in Latin America. European and American/Australian viewers will have a different perception. I enjoyed watching this movie. Great actors, acting, and the story is original. It is clever and funny. Lots of love making scenes with semi-nude Monica Bellucci, but nothing is vulgar. So what this movie is about? I think everyone will come out with their own opinion. In my view it is about role of sex in people's lives, about loneliness and human emotions. And it is shown in a funny way.

"How Much Do You Love Me?" revolves around Monica Bellucci's character Daniela and the many different female roles she changes into and out of like so many pieces of clothing. She is definitely a whore and a seductress, but she may or may not also be a girlfriend, a wife, a mistress, an accomplice, and a scam artist. She is at times domineering but at others submissive and weak; at times jealously possessive but at others open and free; at times quiet and pensive but at others loud and raucous. It takes a while for all these different sides of Daniela to appear, but by the end of the film she is changing between them seemingly in the blink of an eye.

Few characters in the movie can resist falling for one or more sides of Daniela, and the audience too will fall in love with the performance Monica Bellucci gives in the role. It certainly helps that Monica has the beauty and the body to pull of the role, and she is not shy about sharing her voluptuous charms with the camera. In one scene she even instructs us on how she is able to seduce her target, and it is clear that Monica Bellucci knows how to use her considerable female attributes.

The other strong performance in "How Much Do You Love Me?" comes from legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu. Depardieu's character does not appear until the second half of the film, well after all the other main characters have been introduced, but Depardieu instantly captures the attention of the audience. He has played many different characters in his career, and in "How Much Do You Love Me?" he looks like he was born to play the role of an amoral gangster.

The main problem I had with "How Much Do You Love Me?" is that the action starts off slowly, and what is billed as a comedy feels like a depressive drama during the first third of the film. As it turns out it takes a while for director and writer Bertrand Blier to set the stage, and the action picks up considerably in the second two thirds of the film. "How Much Do You Love Me?" never turns into a slapstick farce; instead, it is ultimately a sophisticated adult comedy about the different roles women can assume. While being entertaining it also raises some interesting questions about just what the differences and boundaries are between those roles.

For those who saw "Calmos" from the same director, it's like a reverse version of it. Or maybe an extension of it. Not with same actors unfortunately but we spend a good moment thinking of how Blier had probably some fun while writing the scenario. Because he's a writer as well. And an actor you can see briefly, Hitchcock style.

This is one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Usually that is a reason for me to like a movie, but in this case, the movie was so absurd, that simply everything got destroyed. Characters, conversations, story - simply everything, absurd, unrealistic even silly and pathetic. I felt like watching a movie created by a senile man, that totally lost track of the reality.

I guess this movie wanted to be funny, sadly it didn't even make me smile. I guess this movie wanted to be romantic and passionate, but it felt artificial and wasn't convincing at any point. I guess the movie wanted to teach us something... I failed to get it. If I would have at least understood a message the film wants to give us, I might have accepted it as art and would have accepted all the absurdity along with it. If the jokes would have been funny, I could have accepted the movie as comedy. - All I did during the movie, was to shake my head. This movie didn't offer anything to me beside some beautiful and sexy pictures of Monica Beluci. Even the great actors (I mainly mean Gerard Depardieu) have not been able to save this movie.

Calling this a movie would be exaggerate because almost all the story happens in a flat. Yes, it is the trademark of French movies and that's why in my opinion, the movies are rather dull. It's close of stage performance without the live add-on.

Nevertheless, the cast are pretty excellent to support a very ironic, coarse script. For one time, Monica Belluci has a lot of lines to say and it's always a pleasure to hear her accent. Above all, I think that the more she speaks, the more she can prove her actress talent instead of relying to much on her sex-appeal.

If Blier is talented enough to tell a story, I regret that he lacks some better inspiration. Watching the DVD bonus, you understand him better because he delivers good speech about film-making while cooking. I really got the feeling that he is a apt pupil but a bit lazy.

And again a french DVD without the subtitles! Thanks for the deaf audience, really!

2005 French comedy film. I generally like French comedies. But this movie didn't make me laugh much. A little neighbor woman complaining to the sound and pretending to have an orgasm. Plot: A man comes to a bar where prostitutes hang out. He says that he goes to the woman he likes most and wins 4.5 million euros in the lottery and if he lives with him, he will give her 100 thousand euros every month until the money runs out. The woman accepts. Then the woman has a troublesome girlfriend. The woman falls in love with the man, etc. Lots of silly relationships.

Even if Monica Bellucci had paid her money to make a movie and made a movie, she couldn't have done this much. She's almost naked throughout the movie. I felt sorry for Gerard Depardieu in this movie. How did this man accept this role? They literally spent the man. The movie also has an ending so that whoever can understand it should come.

There is a lot of nudity and sexuality in the movie.

I know this movie isn't really supposed to be funny, but whenever I think of it, I get a fit of giggles. There's a scene towards the end that's so hilarious, it almost blotted out every previous scene from my mind. And, the good news is I can actually describe the scene without giving spoilers! There's a huge confrontation, with some people wanting to kill others, and when Gérard Depardieu bursts into the room brandishing a gun, you think it's going to turn into a bloodbath. With no warning, and still holding his gun, he notices the music playing, starts dancing, and joins the party. Can't you just imagine him switching from a murderous rage to party-mode?

The rest of the movie is one gigantic glorification of lead actress Monica Bellucci's beauty and sex appeal. She plays a prostitute hired by Bernard Campan. He's not well, and he offers her his entire bankroll for as long as she can stay, but when she develops feelings for him, her pimp, Gérard, isn't keen to let her go. I'm pretty sure every man who watches this movie will fall madly in love with Monica, but if you're not in the mood to watch ninety minutes of her prancing around in sexy lingerie, or less, you're not going to like this movie. She probably spends just as much time clothed as unclothed.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to nudity and graphic sex scenes, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Bertrand Blier is a director to whom one cannot be indifferent. Through the years his films have by turns tantalised, taunted, entertained and exasperated. His recurring theme of the power of Sex to raise one to the heights or drag one to the depths is never more relevant than in this tale of Daniela, a stunningly beautiful woman of the night and Francois, a shy, unprepossessing office worker with a dicky ticker. She has of course entertained clients of every age, shape and size and to her surprise he pushes all the right buttons. He awakens her domestic instincts but the other man in her life, Charly, who also happens to be her pimp, shows extreme reluctance to give her up.......

There is much to savour here as Blier's marvellous screenplay has twists and turns, subtle ironies and constant surprises. He has also created a colourful assortment of characters living their lives as best they can. Notable among these are Jean-Pierre Darroussin as a tragi-comic doctor and Farida Rahouadj as a neighbour who gives an hilarious demonstation of how a genuine orgasm should sound.

One has to play the game with the cards one is dealt and Monica Belluci has certainly been dealt a great hand! She is of course physically ideal as Daniela and Blier has drawn from her one of her best performances. She is perfectly complemented by Bernard Campan as Francois who confirms that one cannot judge a book by its cover. The casting of Gerard Depardieu as Charly is inspired. He and Blier have enjoyed a long and fruitful professional partnership to say the least and Depardieu has succeeded here in making a thoroughly unpleasant character somehow sympathetic.

Technically accomplished, aesthetically pleasing and a feast for the eyes this film is also a feast for the ears as Blier has chosen to use extracts from Italian opera. The final scene of domestic bliss between Daniela and Francois acted to the strains of Puccini is certain to melt the hearts of even the most cynical among us.