So was Georges really in love with Cloltide?

He did seem to feel more for her than for anyone else. In the book it emphasizes how his parents were peasants and he feared poverty more than anything. He didn't want to end up back in their village, broke. So if he had been rich and free to be with whoever he wanted, I think he would have chosen Clotilde--but she was already married, so that was another complication.
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Of all the women with whom he was involved, she made the fewest demands on him. Let's just say that she made it really easy for him. His "love" for her wasn't ever really tested, the way it was with the other women.

I don't see it that way at all. She made herself available to him. He loved her just as he did the rest (in that way).

Quote: [Why do you always come back to me]

He didn't look for her. She just popped up most of the time..

However, I think they had more of a romantic relationship than the others.

Uma Thurman was a horse and he abused Virginia for her stupidity.

****Something to that effect*******

I got also that impression.

Luna
http://letterstorob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/santarob.jpg

Obviously, Georges used all the women in the film to his own benefit, however he seemed to sincerely possess feelings for Clotilde. Does anyone else agree?

Well, in the book, at the end, he thinks of her while leaving church with his new bride. But not in a sentimental /romantical way. He likes having sex with her. In fact, he doesn't love anybody. He is so self-centered and he enjoys having power. He's such a ruthless, selfish man with no morality. Maupassant wanted to have an anti-hero as main character.

I think Clotilde was the only woman he had any tenderness for at the end of the film. He was really in love with Madeleine. I had the impression he married her for love and desire. He had respect for Madeleine, unlike the other women, as can be seen by the fact that he 1) stuck up for her when one of the men in his office called her a whore, 2) stayed by her side (the only friend who did) when her husband died, and 3) married her in spite of the fact that she didn't really have money. They broke up because he was so jealous of the fact that Madeleine admitted her love for the Comte after his death. I didn't read the book, but I also thought the end of the film foreshadowed a future in which he had no desire for his new wife and would probably spurn her, but did have desire for Clotilde, his only friend. Otherwise, why would he have bothered to get separate rooms for Suzanne at the lodgings? If he wanted her at all he would have slept with her then. I think the fact that he declined to sleep with Suzanne or even kiss her on the mouth showed he had absolutely no desire for her at all.

I feel the point of the film is that Bel Ami was an animal who came out of poverty and was finding he way through French society in an era where poor people ground it out, often starved and had horrible lives. He manipulated women, but the reason he did this was because he had to take advantage of the opportunity he had with Madeleine's husband. Madeleine called him an animal after the Comte died and he went out and proved it by getting drunk and beat up. After that night, Bel Ami walked in to the party and discovered his wife with a new lover, which meant his days were numbered in his life with her. He certainly hopped from bed to bed, but there was a reason for every liaison.

He slept with Clotilde in order to improve his situation in French society, as he was advised to do by Madeleine. He slept with Madame Rousset in order to really mess with her husband, whom he hated. He also slept with her to get information and power. He slept with Madeleine because he loved her and wanted her - seeing her as an elegant woman.

But in the end of the film he had accomplished that which he set out to do. He had become a member of an elite family, in terms of wealth and position in society, and he would never have to worry about money again. Suzanne's father was getting 70 million francs, which dwarfed the paltry 1 million francs he was going to get through Madeleine from the will of the Comte.

The last thing Bel Ami says to Clotilde is that she has no idea what it is like to eke out a living in poverty. The next scene he marries Suzanne and we know he has arrived. He will have plenty of money, a mother-in-law who can't antagonize him, a father-in-law who is afraid of him, a wife who is young and beautiful to have children with and a lover he has feelings of tenderness for, Clotilde. In spite of what he had to do to get there, he knows he is not an animal anymore and his whole life is rolling out in front of him.

Clotilde was a friend. She was just one of the boys to him. It was Madeline he adored but could not have because she was above him in intellect.