How Much Do You Love Me?

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?")

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.

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.

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.