Film: The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Release date: 27th March 2006
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Romain Duris, Neils Arestrup, Jonathan Zaccai, Gilles Cohen, Linh Dan Pham
Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Romance/Thriller
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: France
Jaques Audiard recently stunned audiences with hard-hitting prison drama A Prophet, which has made him a very celebrated name in European cinema. He won a BAFTA for the film but it was not his first, Audiard got his first nod from the British Academy in 2005 with crime drama The Beat That My Heart Skipped. With a string of Cesar awards also, and the inclusion of rising star Romain Duris, this is not just about crime and punishment, it’s about the music, too.
28-year-old Tom Seyr is a forceful and foul tempered real estate broker. He lives alone, and is growing weary of his day to day crooked dealings; his work sees him planting rats in rival buildings, cutting corners on housing regulations and intimidating squatters out of his buildings. He works with like minded thugs Fabrice and Sami, but his roots in the business lie firmly with his low-life father Robert. As a son, Tom is overly-protective of his dad, and does him favours and collects his debts against his better judgement.
Tom’s departed mother was a concert pianist, and one evening he crosses paths with a former associate of hers, where he is offered the chance of an audition - the chance to re-live his childhood passion of playing music. Unsure at first, Tom balances business and pleasure, enlisting the tutelage of Miao Lin to help him prepare for a musical step up. She is a musical student and prodigy, and offers to teach Tom despite her inability to speak French. He begins to grow as a performer.
As Tom becomes more engrossed in his music, he becomes more disenchanted with his tainted occupation. Having previously covered for partner Fabrice’s infidelities, he begins an affair with his wife Aline. Things even more complicated when Robert begins to attract attention from a notorious Russian gangster, and with the audition coming in the very near future, Tom needs to decide where his priorities lie...
Audiard installs the realism here that went on to feature so prominently in A Prophet. He maintains a balance between the action and the mundane that allows us to feel the strain of Tom’s story, and all the sub-plots it diverts into. It also installs a sense of unease that is felt in all manner of situations, from Tom’s jumbled earlier piano practises to when he is seen tearing apart a guy in a bar fight. The origins of the constant menace of A Prophet is seen here with a dynamic that caters for sudden bursts of violence, musical interludes and afternoon cups of coffee in equal measure.
Another winning Audiard-esque quality is his ability to attract intensely talented young men as his protagonists. Recently we have seen Tahar Rahim as Malik, Vincent Cassel as Paul in Read My Lips, and here we have Romian Duris. Duris plays the part with hard-faced petulance - from the moment we see him he is an animated sight, twisting a lighter in his hand, with his face a frowning picture of unease. The focus of the story is a character study of Tom, and we see in Duris a range that allows this to become the most relevant issue to the audience.
2001’s Read My Lips featured a central relationship between Vincent Cassell and Emmanuelle Devos as a man and woman who form a relationship despite one of them being near deaf. A similar relationship is seen between Tom and Miao Lin, she can only speak Cantonese, Vietnamese and some English, yet their connection is one of the most heartfelt of the story. A scene in which we see Tom prompting his teacher to speak French with kitchen appliances is truly touching, and creates further empathy for Tom. Audiard again places a great emphasis on the altered ways that people connect; in this instance, music becomes the language that allows the two to understand each other.
Frustration can be found in the stories narrative. Tom’s life contrasts the ugliness of his job with the beauty of his music, and this personal battle does leave some things unresolved. Audiard complicates both sides of Tom’s life, but we never get to see him choose between the two. However, the realism and tone of the story does prevent any sort of happy ending from seeming out of place, and, in truth, there is some satisfaction felt with Tom’s final act of violence. Perhaps the way some things teeter out or drag on is all too honest of life.
Some mention should go to Niels Arestup. The actor, who went on to captivate audiences as bulldoggish mob boss Cesar in A Prophet, shows why Audiard thinks so highly of him. As Tom’s dad Richard, he transforms himself into an overbearing and toxic influence on Tom’s life.
This is a fine example of why Jaques Audiard is such a special talent. He features his mix of compelling characters, dominant realism and stunning violence to harrowingly portray the absorbing underbelly of Parisian life. Expect to see lots more of Romain Duris also after a performance that serves as a call card for his budding ability. All those who saw A Prophet and loved it are urged to jump on the Audiard bandwagon immediately. LW
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