Detailed item info | Movie description | Director Jacques Audiard and screenwriter Tonino Benacquista, who shared a 2002 Cesar Award for Best Original Screenplay for READ MY LIPS, team up again in THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, a gritty psychological drama set in the dark, dank streets of Paris. The film is based on James Toback's cult favorite FINGERS, in which Harvey Keitel played a tortured soul trapped between his love of the piano and his involvement with the mob. In this remake, Romain Duris stars as Tom, a ne-'er-do-well who works with two scheming real estate men, Fabrice (Jonathan Zaccai) and Sami (Gilles Cohen), who have little or no morals. When Tom sees his mother's old agent, he decides to return to the piano, practicing Bach's Toccata in E Minor for an important audition that he envisions could be a life-changing event. He hires a Vietnamese woman, Miao-Lin (Linh-Dan Pham), as his teacher, even though they speak different languages. While struggling to regain his mastery of the piano -- which he gave up after his virtuoso mother's tragic death -- he is called upon by his partners to participate in shady deals and even help one of them cheat on his wife (Aure Atika). He also has a troublesome relationship with his father (Niels Arestrup), who asks Tom to collect money he is owed, putting him in dangerous situations. THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED is an intelligent, involving film, told in long takes with a handheld camera to heighten the emotional impact of scene after scene.
| | Credits | | Producer: | Pascal Caucheteux | | Cast: | Anton Yakovlev, Gilles Cohen |
| | Editorial reviews | "[A] dizzy, gratifying experience..."
Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman (07/08/2005)
"[E]lectrifying....[T]he film is a well-timed gift; it's also essential viewing."
New York Times - Manohla Dargis (07/08/2005)
"Audiard's style, handheld and close to the characters, is keyed to Tom's jazzed energy."
Film Comment - Robert Horton (07/01/2005)
"[With] a performance of furious, splintering intensity from Keitel at the quivering peak of his early form."
Sight and Sound - Philip Kemp (11/01/2005)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] gritty and sharply observed study of a life lived at opposing extremes..."
Uncut - Uncut Staff (04/01/2006)
“[A] French-language remake of James Toback’s film-noir drama FINGERS....This one investigates the unfulfilled potential of the first one so thoroughly, and develops it so audaciously, that it qualifies as a reinvention.”
Wall Street Journal (09/11/2009)
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