MovieChat Forums > Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) Discussion > Where to Begin 1? Clara Bellar

Where to Begin 1? Clara Bellar

posted 16 years ago by bryantsean
8 replies | jump to latest

Her performance is so bad in this movie that you can even see Stellan Skarsgård fighting off giving her scathing looks during his own acting performance. She stumbles through dialogue, looks like a blind person half the time.
At one point she gets up from the table in an attempt to be dramatic and looks like she has lost her way from Nirobi.
Look I understand she is French and all, but this was not a good performance. If you have a chance to watch the film....Just watch Stellan Skarsgård look at her with utter distain as she bumbles around in her lines so badly that at one point he even had to help her out.
Over all this movie is not bad. I have gone back and forth on which I felt was better. This or the Beginning. This movie at least attempts to get to the core of Maran and that is worthy, but neither film really lives up to the expectation.
The beginning was a want to be Indiana Jones with the Devil thrown in for good measure.
I wish both films were better. I wish they would have combined efforts and made one great film. But....NO!
The mistake they always make....And I mean in Exorcist 3 and these two films...Is that they think there has to be a final exorcist scene to make it viable. That is not so. Both of these prequels were not great, but what make the beginning so terrible is that end sequence. Otherwise the film was at least watchable.
I think someone should Exorcise the bad acting demon out of Clara. I've seen her in other films and she isn't bad. Here she is horrible.
Just to sum up.....The Exorcist, is one of my favorite films of all time. I wanted so much for there to be a great prequel. Maybe follow Maran through his early life and explore his crisis of faith......No. Hollywood thinks we just need bang for our buck. That we aren't intelligent enough to sit through a thought provoking movie without an exoricism climax.
Hollywood.....Be ashamed and say your penence....This was a sin!

[–] mider1985 16 years ago

shut the hell up as if you could do better at least this movie wasnt as bad as that gawdawful exorcist the beginning man poeple like you screw up the horror genre cause nothing ever pleases you but yet the unborn and *beep* movie slike that KEEP GETTING MADE instead of goign online and posting stupid things go do something about these horrible movies you hate so much.

[–] bryantsean 16 years ago

If they would make a good horror film....Than I would praise it.
The most inspired thing I've seen in years was the remake of Halloween, because it delved more into the charachter of Michael Myers.
Now...Starting off your comment with Shut the Hell up isn't condusive to an open conversation on the genre.
The problem with horror movies of late is the overuse of special effects and the lack of charachterization.
A good movie, "Let the right one in", one of the best movies, in any genre, that I have seen in a long while had it's focal point on charachterization.
I didn't say I hated either movie. I just pointed out that the terrible flaw in anything post Exorcist I is that they feel it necessary to have a final exorcism scene. Do you feel Exorcist III would have been a better movie without that horrible end scene? I do.
What if you made an exoricst movie where a psychoanalyst is thinks the possession is all in the mind and the whole movie centers around their therapy sessions....Until finally the therapaist realizes that he is really talking to the devil. He then debates on whether or not to stop because he's talking to the actually devil.
Now that would interesting to me.
OK....So as Regan MacNeil as the many inside her might say....Stick a blank up your blank you blanker blanking blank sucker....LOL! Lighten up is what I'm trying to say.

[–] bastasch8647 16 years ago

I disagree with the main premise that Bellar is bad in this movie. On the contrary, to me at least, she seems strong but quiet, shy, vulnerable. She perfectly projects the wounded psychology of a Chelno victim, with its surprising element of guilt. Her final scene with Merrin is full of longing, as if she knows she won't be hearing from him again. Etc.

[–] sonysasankan 16 years ago

Im with you bryantsean.. She sucked big time!! She sticks out like a sore thumb, you just cant miss it!! Nothing beats characterization in movies and I'm not too pleased with Father Merrin's either. There's a whole "scripted" feel to it. And while I'm on a roll complaining here, let me also add that this is by far the worst work of Storraro (cinematography) ever!!

[–] unclecessna 15 years ago

Bellar was very, very bad in this film and the first post surmised the main faults that I too have with her performance perfectly. Skarsgard seemed to be struggling visibly in a lot of his scenes with her...definitely a poor casting choice on Schrader's part.
Now I don't think that 'Exorcist: The Beginning' is a perfect movie by any means but do I find it funny that a lot of it's detractors often cite Izabella Scorupco's performance in that movie as being inferior to Bellar's.
Just because she is better looking does not automatically mean that she is only a slasher-movie grade actress. I think Scorupo did a great job with the material she was given in ETB and I also think she is an underrated actress who hasn't been given any really good roles so far in her career.
Replacing Bellar was one of the things ETB did right imo.

[–] sean4554 15 years ago

It's almost as though Bellar's scenes were basically rehearsals and unfinished. I don't know if that's the case or not, but her acting didn't at all detract from the power of the film as far as I'm concerned. She didn't come off particularly well, I agree, but considering the whole crummy situation this film found itself in with the studio, it's easy to accept the obvious issues.

[–] douces 14 years ago

Bellar is awful in this film. She's so bad it ended her on screen career!

Scorupco was superior.

[–] kurt7825 8 years ago

lol. how can you judge acting when you've never taken a lesson in your life? you are retarded