“Bel Ami”

Well, the Self-Styled Siren has her favorite cinematic version of the Maupassant novel, which she wrote about beautifully here. And I have my own, the 1976-or-so "erotic adult" version, widely touted at the time as Harry Reems' final film (he came back) and also boasting real European "production value" not to mention "exotic" European female talent. Which I first saw not because I was a pornhound perv but because of a personal/professional association with the firm Video-X-Pix, which I detail in my still-unfinished memoir My Life In Pornography. Anyway, if you like that sort of thing, it's really quite good of its kind. In any event, it's WAY better than the new, Robert Pattinson-starring Bel Ami, which I review today for MSN Movies. The Siren didn't care for it either; her review in today's  New York Post is funnier and sharper and more concise than my own, maybe. "Twinkly Hannibal Lecter," that's good.