Robert Pattinson Is Your “Bel Ami”

Robert Pattinson gets ready to slay the ladies of the Third Republic.

Variety reports that Robert Pattinson is planning to star in an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel, “Bel Ami.” (Variety calls it a short story, but it’s a novel–de Maupassant is certainly more famous for his short stories, but this was his second novel. Fact checker! Copy editor!) London theater director Declan Donnellan will make his film debut with this project.

As silly as Variety’s error was, it’s fine compared to the hilarious article on MTV.com, where the writer gave the Variety piece such a poor read that she mixes up ”Remember Me,” Pattinson’s next film, with “Bel Ami” (someone didn’t do well with reading comp on her SATs). So disregard that one’s rambling casting suggestions as she is talking about the wrong movie.

Anyway, back to “Bel Ami”–I was an English Lit major, but I know that de Maupassant more or less falls into the late 19th century French Realist school, and that he was a disciple of Flaubert’s. You can read a brief synopsis of “Bel Ami” from Amazon or a lengthier one from Wikipedia. Whichever you go with, you can see that Pattinson’s description of his character, George Duroy, as “totally amoral,” is spot on. Basically he’s an ambitious social climber who will use and abuse whoever he needs to get what he wants; one could imagine him showing up in a novel by de Maupassant peers Edith Wharton or Henry James. Expect plenty of beautiful Parisian scenes and lovely Belle-Epoque clothes.