Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

seymourblack-1 A brief conversation (at the beginning of this movie) about the added responsibilities that can be thrust upon a son when the father is no longer able to cope as well as he had in the past, flags up a situation that has a strong bearing on the drama that follows. The son's loyalty makes him committed to looking after his father but also makes him feel trapped and then, when a passion from his past re-emerges (in this case, an ambition to be a classical pianist), it causes conflict within him as he tries to decide which way to go in his life and also causes conflict with his father who disapproves of his ambition.Thomas Seyr (Romain Duris) is a 28-year-old Parisian real estate broker who works with his partners on property deals involving run-down apartments which they buy and sell off at a profit. Their work often involves forcefully removing squatters, immigrants and even legitimate tenants that they want to evict in order to facilitate another sale. Where the people involved show any reluctance to move, various tactics, such as releasing rats into their homes or smashing their windows with baseball bats are used to change their minds. Thomas' involvement in this type of work and his propensity for violence are the results of his father's influence. Robert Seyr (Niels Arestrup) has a long history as a slumlord and has, for many years, used his son to collect unpaid rent by any means necessary.Thomas' mother, who'd died some years earlier, had been a concert pianist and he's pleasantly surprised one night when he unexpectedly meets Mr Fox (Sandy Whitelaw), who'd been her manager. Fox remembers the promise that Thomas had shown as a classical pianist and offers him the opportunity of an audition. This sparks an enthusiastic response in Thomas who, after a long period of neglect, becomes determined to improve his piano skills. After being introduced to Chinese piano virtuoso Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) who's a newly arrived immigrant in France, he hires her as his tutor. Despite her inability to speak French, they soon develop a rapport and Thomas works obsessively to be successful in his new endeavour, which he knows can lead him to a better and more fulfilling life.Thomas' new obsession causes problems with his business partners because he can't keep up with all his commitments to them and similarly, because his father is no longer able to handle the trouble he gets himself into as a result of his shady dealings, Thomas is increasingly called upon to sort his problems out as well. As a result of these conflicting pressures, Thomas fails his audition. However, a way then presents itself for him to achieve the better life he wanted through classical music, albeit by a different route than he'd originally planned.This movie's direction, cinematography and script are all conspicuously top class and Romain Duris' performance is exceptional. His explosive volatility when he's playing the thug, his understated interactions with Miao Lin and his unrestrained distress in anther key scene are just some examples of the power and range of his acting. The characters in this story are all particularly well-drawn with Niels Arestrup standing out among the supporting cast with his portrayal of Thomas' crude, overweight father who hasn't got the good judgement to know when the time has come for him to get out of his particular line of work. "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" is well-paced, violent and more affecting than many people might expect.

Christopher Culver The 2005 French film DE BATTRE MON COEUR S'EST ARRETE ("The Beat that My Heart Skipped") is director Jacques Audiard's remake of the obscure 1978 American film FINGERS.Thomas (Romain Duris) is a shady real estate developer in Paris, releasing rats in apartment blocks to drive out the residents, then buying up the property before they can move back in. He is torn between this dishonourable profession like his scumbag father (Niels Arestrup) and a career as a concert pianist like his late mother. Seeking a way out of his violent lifestyle, he hires a Vietnamese pianist (Linh Dan Pham) to help him reach a professional level, and though they share no common language, it proves a fruitful partnership.Though the story remains powerful for much of its length, things seem somewhat rushed towards the end. It is suggested that character of Thomas' father's ex-girlfriend will play a major role, but then she disappears. And the ending itself, which I won't give away, is an ambiguous statement about whether Thomas has found peace with himself or not. Perhaps these flaws were present in FINGERS, I don't know, though I do know that the remake that is DE BATTRE has 17 minutes of new scenes, mainly dealing with Thomas' work with his piano teacher.Regardless of its plot and the comparison to the original, what makes DE BATTRE an interesting effort in itself are the performances. Many viewers will have known Romain Duris only from his turn as the innocent European manchild Xavier in 2000's L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE and its sequels. Here, however, Duris convincingly plays his occasionally villainous role and keeps up the nervousness of a man who can't find a way out.The film's soundtrack is an unusual mix of obscure pop, classical piano, and (Tom's personal favourite) the electro genre that exploded in 2005. The film music by Alexandre Desplats won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005.

aFrenchparadox Struggling to find your own place after having grown up between two worlds so different you wonder how they could meet in the first place. Killing the father symbolically to reach the dead mother. Trying to catch up with a promising future you let go. Ending up living it by proxy. Finally being caught back by the world you managed to leave. Because no matter how much you feel far from a world you grew up in, it's part of you, it's constitutive by rejection or acceptation of what you became. Because you can't just turn your back and hope everything you want to ignore will disappear. Because you have to deal with your past to find a balance between your background and your expectations. Another one of those stories I cherish where it's about reaching yourself, stuck between two worlds. Also another piece where Audiard manages to make petty gangsters likable.

Framescourer With the huge success of his A Prophet as last year became this, it's worth a detour through Jacques Audiard's back catalogue. The cryptically titled The Beat My Heart Skipped concerns come of the same themes that made A Prophet a tense - and epic - cinematic tale. Romain Duris is a temperamental young wheeler-dealer in Parisian real estate, fluent, if not happy with the murky aspects of his trade. Serendipity produces a remarkable plot diversion: offered an audition by a former piano teacher, he begins lessons with a Chinese girl who speaks no French, and finds the process emancipates him from the tawdriness of his day-to-day.Naturally the drama builds as the civilising effect of his extracurricular pursuit and that very job come into conflict. I liked the way in which Audiard managed this though. I also liked the way in which he dealt with the pianism within the film. This is a notoriously tricky area, introducing music or sport, events which have their own inherent drama. The non-Francophone teacher is a brilliant conceit in this respect - since we do not understand the Chinese (non subtitles) the drama moves from dialogue about the piano to the physicality of the exchanges between the characters.Of course, so much more revolves about this - like El Djebena, much of the drama comes from expecting Thomas to drop one of the many balls he's juggling - women, providing alibis for adulterous friends, the fractious relationship with his passée-thug father. A nice selection of supporting roles, from the wonderful Niels Arestrup as said dead-beat papa to the echt Parisian beauty Aure Atika as Aline maintain the verisimilitude easily enough. This is Duris' picture though. He performs with such a convincing equivocation that there is no second- guessing the script and we feel sympathy even in his foolhardiness and violence. A very good, if (also characteristically) rather pessimistic film. 7/10