User Reviews

Bellamy (Depardieu) is a famous Parisian police detective on vacation in Nimes with his wife. He is intrigued by a local scandal involving an insurance scam and death. The perpetrator of the scam contacts Bellamy for his advice.

His curiosity is roused and he meets the con.

I agree with the reviewer who said this slow moving boring film has a bunch of subplots that never seem to go any where. I would add the film tries to be deep with tons of meaning of life dialogue. This mixture comes off as vapid.

I suppose the main subplot concerned Bellamy's (Depardieu) brother Jacques (Clovis Cornillac) who is miscast at 20 years younger than Depardieu. In the end we find out that Bellamy almost choked him to death as a child. So?

Look this movie is a dud. Even with the tantalizing evidence of a twist ending of sorts. It is too vapid = a non suspenseful non thriller non anything waste of time.

Also Depardieu's naughty sexual behavior towards his wife is a pathetic prop to add virility to this fading obese star. Depardieu is also portrayed as a sort of a walking Socrates plum full of contemplative dialogues--the worst sort of French film flaw---talk talk talk talk....

Do not rent or watch this film.

I have not been exposed to a.lot of Claude Chabrol films, but the ones I have seen are very good. He was considered a master of mystery, and this is the last film he did before his death in 2010.

It stars Gérard Depardieu, and I have more than a few of his performances (La Vie en Rose, Paris, Je T'Aime, Mesrine: Killer Instinct). What I really like about Depardieu's role in the film is that he, and the film, are what I would call normal. We see life as it really exists, without gimmicks and special effects. It's a plain whodunit, with a plain detective. Marie Bunel, as his wife, adds immensely to this picture of normalcy.

The crime is only incidental in the film. It is really about relationships - The inspector (Depardieu) and his wife, the inspector and his bum of a brother, two mistresses who are not the mistresses of the people who think they are - forget the crime and focus on the people.

This is by far the worst Chabrol film I've watched; he is normally I director I admire but this film is dull, vapid, poorly edited and showcases all the worst stereotypes about French cinema. The characters are completely lacking in depth (and contrived oh-so-shocking revelations don't change this) and universally uninteresting; Depardieu in particular is very good at acting pedantic, but manages to convey precious little else. Actually, none of the characters are likable and most are unsympathetic without being interesting.

The central plot is about a crime that gets rapidly duller as the film progresses; from the start it's not particularly fascinating (because none of the characters involved is sympathetic or interesting in his own right, it fails to answer 'why should I care?'), but the central crime story becomes increasingly prosaic and occasionally ludicrous.

This film has far too many subplots, none of which are even remotely interesting and they drag on and on ('brevity is the soul of wit' applies here) and are only marginally relevant to the central plot. You keep hoping one of them develops into something interesting, but it never happens. It has the feel that Chabrol filmed lots of subplot footage in case it was useful and in the end just decided to shove it all into the final product.

Unless this film is somehow meant as a parody of the most pretentious French cinema or some other sort of in-joke, it is an astonishing failure by an otherwise very good director.

What's good? The obese Depardieu in a likeable toned-down role. Marie Bunel, a little known movie actress, proving elderly women are still attractive to men. Chabrol's use of Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" for a key sequence underscoring the entire tale. And the W H Auden's end-quote "There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye." A good cop with a kind heart for the bad guys.

Claude Chabrol (24 June 1930 - 12 September 2010) was one of the French mainstream New Wave film directors, celebrated for his suspense thrillers. BELLAMY is his last film and as such will probably remain one of his more fascinating. he was able to take what appeared on the surface to be rather mundane characters and story threads and twist them and turn them into fascinating tales. This trait is very evident in the mesmerizing, seemingly off the cuff film BELLAMY which holds our attention in a friendly conversational kind of way and then turns the tables at the end, leaving the viewer with the question 'why didn't I see that coming?'

Famous Parisian Inspector Paul Bellamy (Gérard Depardieu) and his wife Françoise (Marie Bunel) are enjoying their vacation in Françoise's childhood home in Nîmes, France when they notice a stalker. The stalker calls Bellamy to meet him: Noël Gentil (Jacques Gambin) confesses a murder he has committed and for some reason captures the attention of Bellamy. The 'murder' is an insurance scheme in which Noël staged his own death using a proxy in order to get his wife's life insurance money allowing him to run away with his girlfriend Nadia Sancho (Vahina Giocante). 'Noël Gentil' is actually Emile Leullet married to Madame Leullet (Adrienne Pauly) but after the staged car-over-the-cliff accident, a car supposedly containing a street person Denis Leprince - also played by Gambin, the scam is squelched by the insurance company's investigation. Bellamy covers every lead into this strange situation and it ends with a surprise death that alters the entire scam.

Meanwhile Bellamy's restless and resentful brother Jacques (Clovis Cornillac), an ex-con who still manages to steal from friends and puts the blame on his brother, visits Bellamy and his wife, and causes disruptions in their personal life as well as bringing Bellamy to a point of facing secrets about his childhood he has hidden from the world, secrets about his brother that are resolved in a very bizarre manner. All of these facts are ingredients for a thriller of a movie, but Chabrol's technique is to treat the harsh realities of the story as mere chatty conversations. All is not as it seems and behind every thread of this episodically related story are other stories that need the viewer's concentration to resolve.

The cast is strong and the jewel of the film is the performance by Marie Bunel as the loving, affectionate, older wife. She glows. It is sad that Claude Chabrol is gone, but his fine movies are a legacy that makes him immortal.

Grady Harp

I suppose when I rate this movie more highly than many other people it's because I haven't had enough exposure to Claude Chabrol. For me this falls under the category "French movie," not "Chabrol movie." So those who are less discriminating may like the movie as much as my wife and I did.

European movies are better than American to the extent that they show ordinary people's lives lived at any ordinary pace. They're worse when they indulge in incomprehensible or surrealistic profundities. "Bellamy" teeters on the edge of the latter now and then, but gives us many pleasures of the first kind. It's a murder mystery, sort of, but more of the "what happened?" than the "who did it?" variety. In addition, it's a view into the life of Inspector Bellamy and the people in his life. His relationship with his wife is simple but enviable (perhaps improbably so). Marie Bunel is perfect as the wife.

The film does have some irritating attempts at profundity, but they are not too distracting. It's more distracting wondering how Gerard Depardieu, the Inspector, can have a brother played by an actor 20 years younger that he supposedly grew up with.

Chabrol is 78, and this is his 57th film. He's in fine form here, though this hasn't quite got the delirious malice or the cloying bourgeois atmosphere of his most potent works. The closing dedication is to "the two Georges." They are Georges Brassens, the French singer-songwriter, and Georges Simenon, the prolific Belgian-born maker of novels hard and soft and the creator of the inimitable Commissioner Maigret. This is the first time Chabrol and Gérard Depardieu have worked together. For the occasion, Chabrol has conceived a lead character who's half Maigret, half Depardieu. And he has based his crime plot on a news item. The ingredients blend well and the result is guaranteed to entertain.

There is an actual Maigret novel in which the Paris detective goes on vacation with his wife, but then becomes involved in a case. ('Les Vacances de Maigret'--and it was made into a film!) It's a foregone conclusion that Maigret, and Chabrol's Commissioner Paul Bellamyworki (Depardieu) is no different, is happiest when he's solving a murder mystery. Bellamy spends every summer with his wife Françoise (Marie Bunel) in the region of Nimes, in the south of France, where she maintains a cozy bourgeois family house. She would prefer they join a cruise on the Nile, where Bellamy would be less able to get his nose into French crime, but here they are. And as the film begins and Maigret, I mean Bellamy, is doing a crossword and Françoise is planning dinner and shopping, a suspicious-looking lean sort of fellow called Noël Gentil (Jacques Gamblin) is hovering around in the garden just outside the picture window, and finally gets up his courage and raps on the front door. Bellamy has written a well known memoir and like Maigret is so famous people seek him out.

Mme. Bellamy turns the man away, but there's a phone call, and Bellamy goes to a motel room, and he finds this chap interesting because people interest him. Gentil turns out to have several aliases, and even faces, because he's sought the help of a plastic surgeon. He shows the photo of a man who looks rather like himself and says he "sort of killed him." He declares himself to be in a terrible mess. There are several women, a wife (Marie Matheron) and a beautiful young woman who has a beauty shop (Vahina Giocante) in the town. And, as in the Simenon novel, there is a local police inspector, a certain Leblanc, whom Bellamy doesn't respect, and assiduously avoids, and Chabrol never shows us on screen.

M. Gentil turns out to be a suspect involved in a double life and a devious crime. But he is seeking the Commissioner's help--on a private basis. It has to do with an insurance scam that went awry.

Chabrol is also involved in a double process, because the film takes a complicated family turn with the arrival of Bellamy's ne'er-do-well half-brother Jacques Lebas (Clovis Cornillac), who gambles, drinks too much, and has a habit of going off with things that don't belong to him. Cornillac wears this character's skin so comfortably he never seems to be acting, and with a part like this, that's a neat trick, and he makes Jacques somehow elegant as well.

Part of the charm of this easy-to-watch if unchallenging film is the warm relationship between Françoise and Bellamy, which is romantic and affectionate and physical and cozy all at once. Bunel and Depardieu (who is very large now, a benignly beached whale in a good suit) play very well together. There is a dinner with a gay dentist (Yves Verhoeven) and his partner, which Jacques horns in on; this isn't terribly interesting. Nor is the case extremely resonant. The most memorable moments are those between Bellamy and his wife and his love-hate squabbling with the unpredictable half-brother, which are enhanced by the bright colors and warmth of the southern French setting. There is a young lawyer who shines in court, and lines from a Georges Brassens song are used in a surprising way. Fans of Chabrol and of Depardieu (and the two Georges!) won't want to miss this.

Bellamy opened in Paris February 25, 2009 to decent reviews. Given its north American premiere at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center in March 2009, this seems sure to get a US distributor, but none has been announced yet.

I only found later that the movie was greatly inspired in Simenon's detective. Indeed the simplicity, unclear methods and distracted although focused attitudes corresponds to Maigret in great detail. The main difference is Depardieu's tender relationship with his wife, completely absent in the novel. Another difference, Bellamy's brother is maybe a weak point.

Major criticism refers to the lack of deepness of the characters and the plain performance of Depardieu. It did not affect me at all. The movie is light, intriguing and pictures nicely some aspects of French lifestyle. It was a pleasure to see Nimes and a joyful Maigret on the screen.

Chabrol is definitely at his best in Bellamy. It is subtle, full of humor, and very well played. The performance of Gérard Depardieu, kind of ogre, easy-going but not only, Marie Bunel, with her touch of amused sensuality, Jacques Gamblin, mastering three characters, three faces of the madness, and Clovis Cornillac, as a magnificent alcoholic loser, are simply tremendous. Some knowledge of Georges Brassens songs and Georges Simenon detective novels (Both Georges...) can optionally help to better appreciate the dialogs. But anyway, go and dive into the fascinating depth of the characters. Is Mr Gentil a killer? What is Commissaire Bellamy's terrific secret? Bellamy is the kind of detective movie the Commissaire Maigret's novels should have been adapted for the screen alike.

Inspector Bellamy is on vacation. Why shouldn't he be? He's earned it, being on the force for so many years. He spends his time resting and doing odd things around the house - that is, trying to distract himself from an odd presence in a thin man who stalks his house and steps on his flowers. For shame! Paul Bellamy calls up this man who stopped by to speak to him and leaves a stern message. This man calls up Bellamy at midnight- such an odd hour - to meet with him. This man, a guy with big, nervous and possibly frightened eyes, names himself Emile Leullet, and he thinks he may have killed someone. Thinks being the operative word as he's not quite sure. Bellamy, not having a lot better to do, takes on the case informally, interviewing his girlfriend, and other people like a dance instructor who might know what's going on.

As it turns out Leullet is not just one guy, he's two, or three. Claude Chabrol does a playful Hitchcock trick (Hitchcock and Chabrol, no way!) where Leulett is played by the same actor, Jacques Gamblin, and also appears as Noel Gentil, a businessman, and a homeless guy, who may be the one that Leulett killed. Whether he did or didn't is a guessing game Chabrol toys with and curiously keeps his main character equally engaged and annoyed by. Would he rather focus on this case while on holiday when his (to him and maybe to us) sexy wife is at home? But then again, what about his brother, Francoise?

The brother part of the story, or who might be a step-brother, is what adds the interesting dimension to Inspector Bellamy. With just the crime-plot in the story it might just be a fun but diverting and inconsequential little thriller that is so much a slow-burner that Andy Warhol might have filmed the candle. But it's the introduction, relatively early on in the story, of this brother that suddenly makes the film matter more than it did before. Or, rather, it becomes a more interesting film the more one thinks about the duality of the situation. Bellamy is caught in the middle of two men who are just there: his brother Francoise, a louse and a drunk and usually a pretty miserable guy who is 'in-between' jobs and is amusing 20% of the time and the other 80 percent Paul can't help but want to smash his face in. And then there's Leulett, or Noel or Denis Leprince or whoever he is. Did he kill this person? Does it matter? Maybe Paul, as he even notes, has a liking for murderers, or just their style.

Chabrol is in no rush with his story, which takes some detours here and there with dinner talk and trips to the hardware store and conversations with a female employee who is young enough to be Paul's daughter. This is just fine if you can get into the rhythm he's telling. For some (like a gentleman sitting next to me in the theater and insane to me due to the $13 ticket price) it might be sleep-inducing. But Chabrol does have more on his mind here than the usual police procedural or provincial murder mystery with twists in the story and the 'show-don't-tell' aspects where we see Leulett in "action". Those scenes, and seeing Depardieu in this role, is fun. It's when we get this personal dimension, of this brother who for all rights should be like a bad case of fleas and yet has some kind of sympathy to him, that the film takes on another light.

Chabrol is neither over the top nor too subtle. Many scenes are presented in a straightforward dramatic style- probably just one shot in the bedroom for the confrontation- and in the resolution it's kind of peaceful. Again, this duality for Paul, of a man in his life who is very frank and dangerous in his honesty, and the other who is a total fake and possibly proud of it (though he does snap back to reality when he hears of his girlfriend sleeping with another Inspector!), is what counts. I liked seeing how Depardieu made his character smarter than others around him, but humble and with some humility to him. He's not a Sherlock Holmes, he's just a guy trying to put together a book-shelf and have some sex with his wife, what's wrong with that. That the actor playing his brother as well (I forget his name at the moment) is as good, if two-dimensional, in his role brings out the best out of the film's star.

This was the director's 50th film, and it feels every bit like a Chabrol film, all the way down to its sad climax (and what a wonderful quote to end a movie, and unintentionally a career: "... there is always another story, there is more than meets the eye."), and his very reasonable and/or crazy cast of characters. It's a story without frills, as one would hope an old man would make, though perhaps a bit too long in some spots (there was a moment I thought the story would naturally end, and it didn't, though it ended up in a special place), and the camera and editing are loose and relaxed.

This doesn't mean Inspector Bellamy is meant to be too slow, or not- involve its viewers. It's the quiet work of a master confident completely in what he's doing, be it a flash to a dance scene drowning in darkness and slivers of light, or having fun with little surprises. One such one, as a final note, is when the Leullet character is on trial, and his attorney breaks out into song (he's the only one, no music, just his voice) to explain his defense. I've never seen that in a movie. Glad there's one more curve-ball to throw, and a hilarious one at that.

Several reviewers seem bored, annoyed or just disappointed by this film.

Well, it is not a crime film. The trial scene tells you that, when the defending lawyer presents his case to a grinning judge in song. And the policeman leading the case, who we never see, has been bonking one of the key witnesses, the glamorous pedicurist and tango dancer. The mystery elements are not meant to be taken seriously, being almost a McGuffin, for it is not really a police or detective story nor, with the fanciful coincidences and whimsical names, is it plot-driven.

So what on earth is the film about? For a start it is a tribute to Maigret, France's most famous fictional detective. Maigret had a loyal wife who kept him well fed and took an intelligent interest in his cases. Bellamy's lovely wife keeps him lively in bed as well. Maigret studied people, had a way of getting them to talk and then listened acutely. Watch how brilliant Bellamy is, particularly with women who, even if they do not give him the whole truth (how many do?), certainly tell him a lot.

As so often in French cinema and literature, what we have is an exploration of relationships, of interactions between people, analyses of character. The title tells us that, It is about Bellamy, his life, his work, his delightful wife and in particular his dark side. Here, his half-brother is his evil shadow who inverts all his values. Bellamy has given up drink and his brother is an alcoholic. While Bellamy upholds the law, his brother steals from everybody. Bellamy seeks out the truth: his brother tells lie after lie

What we are given by the ageing Chabrol is a journey into the mind of a man who has spent his working life fighting crime yet, like all of us, has the hidden criminal within him. By spending time with Bellamy, we see some of his essential humanity and so see something of ourselves.

A famous French detective on vacation in Languedoc investigates a mystery man who approaches him claiming to have killed someone. The man is sure to catch the curiosity of the detective and spectators of the movie!

This is a great Chabrol movie, with characters who could have been actors in the biggest financial crime of humanity. As the investigation unfolds we see homeless people, fraud, insurance brokers, lawyers, police, big financial institutions. Every time the detective asks a question or makes a comment how bad the world is, we wonder what he has next to uncover.

The half brother of the successful detective, an alcoholic, a loser, comes over to stay at the detective and his wife's vacation home. The movie then asks the real questions, what makes winners and losers? Who are the real winners ? Who are the criminals? And it does reply to these questions in humorous, intelligent and intriguing ways.

The film surely is much more than a detective story. The screenplay is fantastic. Chabrol does not rush, it always gives time to spectators to search for answers in their own while solving the murder mystery.

Solid acting by Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin make the movie flow smoothly.

A must see, for anyone interested in Chabrol movies, detective stories and especially for anyone who tries to make sense of the economic crisis and the world we live in.

We commonly speak of 'the elephant in the room'. But what about the elephant on the screen? Gerard Depardieu, talented and magnetic personality that he is, has now grown to such a size that he really should out of delicacy keep himself from public view. The idea of him being even remotely romantic is absurd. In this film, his slender and attractive wife (Marie Bunel) shows him great loving devotion, they are always kissing and cuddling, and he is constantly feeling her in the intimate places of her anatomy while she appears to be thrilled by this attention. But how convincing is that? His stomach is now so gigantic that he appears to be pregnant with sextuplets. In one ludicrous bedroom scene, his wife leaps on top of him while he is lying on his back, and ends up hopelessly stranded on top of his gigantic tummy like a beached ship. I can only presume that Claude Chabrol, in this last film which he made in the year before he died, was having his little joke. Depardieu's face has expanded into a full moon, and one has to struggle to recognise him. Everyone knows that in what passes for 'real life', Depardieu likes his food and wine, but really, one has to choose, and since he has chosen to become so immensely fat through showing no restraint in his inordinate consumption, he must face the fact that his days as a screen Lothario are over. Indeed, it is even difficult to take him seriously now as a character actor. It is such a pity, because he is such a good actor. Perhaps he needs one of those stomach operations to restrain him, as it is probably too late for dieting to accomplish much. However, turning to the film itself, it is even more complex than usual for a Chabrol film. The ostensible story turns out not to be the real story at all. It is not the mystery which the detective tries to solve which is the purpose of the film, but the detective himself who has to be solved by the viewers. And this is also Inspector Bellamy's own greatest challenge as an investigator, to understand the riddle of himself. The film is so multi-textured, with hints and strands running everywhere, that people who enjoy solving puzzles will have a great time. Murder and betrayal are in there, as they appear to have been twin obsessions of Chabrol. But most deeply rooted in this film is the motif of self-detestation because of terrible deeds one has done in the past, which have remained secret, and which have devoured one from within over decades. Depardieu conveys successfully a man destroyed by regrets so bitter that they can never be repaired. His feckless half-brother, a drunk and dropout who stays with Depardieu and his wife during their break from Paris (where Depardieu is said to be a famous detective inspector, and in any case he keeps his gun in a drawer in his kitchen, so he must be a detective), is played with poignant and embittered despair by Clovis Cornillac (how amazing to have the first name of a Merovingian king!) The multi-tasking Jacques Gamblin, who was so brilliant in Chabrol's COLOUR OF LIES (1999, see my review), here plays no less than three characters. Perhaps Chabrol was doing an essay not only on double-identity but triple-identity. Whatever his intentions in this intense and bizarre film, Chabrol certainly was reaching for some profundities, some of which he reached, and some of which remained beyond his grasp. It is as if a drowning man were searching for the ultimate answers to the things which most troubled him and, his hands stretching from the water which is about to engulf him, managed to grab hold of some last insights just before he sank. I suppose the film is ultimately unsatisfying because it is somewhat self-indulgent, but there can be little doubt of Chabrol's earnest intent, so we must respect that. A man making his last film is not struggling for effect, he is gasping for meaning. I can understand some people saying they did not like this film, because it was not made for entertainment purposes, it was made for Chabrol's peace of mind, a kind of anguished testament perhaps. The film contains continuous references to the marvellous song-writer and singer Georges Brassens (1921-1981), as well as repeatedly mentioning his grave at the southern seaport of Sète (a town where they have the most delicious and authentic fish soup, which I highly recommend), which was his home town. I did not 'get' all of this, but it doubtless had a meaning to Chabrol deeper than mere admiration, and for all I know there may be countless Frenchmen who could recount at great length the importance of Brasssens to this story. Brassens could perhaps be described as 'the Leonard Cohen of France', and he has a large and devoted following. He sang with that extraordinarily charming accent of the South which one hears in Marcel Pagnol's old black and white films. The insistence with which Chabrol hammers away at the Brassens motif, his tomb, and its association with a murder, must mean something to someone, though it is all too subtle for me. One also wonders why Chabrol is so obsessed with cars going off cliffs? There must be so much more to all this than meets the uninformed eye. Perhaps some day someone will solve the mystery of Claude Chabrol, or should I say the many mysteries of the man, and why he himself seems to have been so haunted a personality. Or has this already been done by some eager French cinéaste and I just don't know about it?

Unlike in most frantic American crime stories, France's Inspector Bellamy leisurely rambles about its characters as if they were the story, not the crime. And indeed they are: Inspector Paul Bellamy (Gerard Depardieu) is as uncomfortable with the crime subject's different personas as he is with his own past, most notably with his half-brother, Jacques Lebas (Clovie Cornillac), who shows up to renew their sibling rivalry.

"French Hitchcock" director Claude Chabrol selects each shot for its maximum information, frequently illuminating more than one character, more than one motive. For the French, the highest incentive for crime or a happy life seems to be love, and Chabrol explores the various twists infidelity and family can toss into the crime solving mix. True to his New Wave roots, Chabrol lards each image with meaning while couching the story in a languid realism, less edgy now than years ago, but still full of life's ironies while life is lived out in an almost mundane fashion.

More interesting than the multiple personalities of the suspect is the intimate dance of the hero, Bellamy, and his attractive wife, Francoise (Marie Bunel), who provides him with intellectual companionship, sexual longing, and a bit of jealousy for good measure. The lovely chemistry between Depardieu and Bunel reminds me of how authentic a good character study like this can be in the hands of a master director. While Depardieu has developed a belly beyond reason, he still delivers the emotional goods, just as retired Inspector Bellamy can successfully solve a crime.

Imagine all this richness without discernible CGI. For good reason: The emphasis is on the husband-wife relationship, not the crime. So it is in most European cinema, or at least it seems that way to an American critic who has seen enough of his country's gadget-centered films.

Marie Bunel as Françoise Bellamy is the real keeper in this movie. In a world where nothing is as it seems, she is just as much an enigma. The scenery is the second best co-star in this flick.

The movie does move slow and if Gérard Depardieu gets any fatter he won't fit on the television screen. It will become a requirement that his movies must be watched at the cinema.

His performance is uninspiring. Save this movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

What would you expect for a man that sums himself up by saying, "I'm not a monster, I'm just a man who wants to pee."

I originally gave Bellamy a 6 star rating because it is a shaggy dog story with several flaws. On consideration I bumped it up to 8 stars. I feel even with the films weaknesses it's a must see. For one thing it's Chabrol's last feature film after directing at least one film a year for more than 40 years he should be commemorated for having produced so many classics. Secondly, with it's flaws like most Chabrol films it leavea you wondering what intrigues the master detective so much and like the film Flic Story are cops and criminals more similar than different? One misstep was the handling of a main character of the alcoholic younger brother played by Clovis Cornillac. The older brother played by Depardieau and his wife played by Marie Burne. are continually "inabling" him but there's no apparent reason since his shown at his worse on every occasion (unless there is some other motive?). Nevertheless, the cast is good and the cinematography crisp and moody. What I liked most is the film is that it's very french. The inclusion of old Georges Brassens songs at the most incredulous times to move the plot along and the direction is stylish but not showy, (very french).