Whether the scenes add up to anything or not, however, Duris holds the screen like a natural.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:88
Fresh:74
Rotten:14
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Stylish and visceral, this able remake is infused with realism, grit, and a taut performance by star Romain Duris.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:Jul 1, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $799,497
Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]
Starring: Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Linh Dan Pham, Aure Atika
Starring: Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Linh Dan Pham, Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos, Jonathan Zaccai, Gilles Cohen, Anton Yakovlev
Director: Jacques Audiard
Director: Jacques Audiard
Screenwriter: Tonino Benacquista
Producer: Pascal Caucheteux
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Wellspring
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Reviews for The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Audiard's baffling underworld etude seems entirely played in a minor key.
Emotionally richer than Fingers, and there's nothing secondhand about Duris' performance.
This is character-driven film noir, where the violence serves a higher purpose than shocking or titillating an audience.
Much more than a remake, Beat is an original vision that explores the inner conflict between a man's animal brutality and the passion to transcend.
Director Jacques Audiard makes us feel exactly what his characters feel, and, for Thomas, that often has to do with how he responds to music.
Duris' performance is more finely tuned and less frenetic than Keitel's enjoyably over-the-top job, and the film's emotional chords resonate in more satisfying and complicated ways.
It's a tense, jumpy, sometimes amusing work that posits the inherent duality of everything. And, most definitely, the intriguing duality of people.
A French movie that reclaims some of the urgency and breathless enthusiasm of the movies we loved in the '70s.
The film confirms director Audiard as a master of visual mood, in this case one of barely expressed emotional panic.
The conceit of a strongarm hoodlum doubling as a concert pianist seemed really silly to me back in 1978, and it seems no less silly today.
Takes an excellent film that was very much a part of its time and place and re-imagines it as an excellent film that is very much a part of this time and this place.
With 2005's The Beat That my Heart Skipped joining Read my Lips, Jacques Audiard is asserting himself as a powerhouse in the new wave of French directors.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped, in which Audiard has tightened the story while opening it up, works precisely where Fingers failed.
A French film that takes the hard-boiled poetics of American noir and squeezes them into an explosive, compacted knot of anguish and violence.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped doesn't replace Fingers, but joins it as the portrait of a man reaching out desperately toward his dying ideals.
Sets a high mark for so complete a character study in a dynamic and original context. Duris owns the part.
Latest News for The Beat That My Heart Skipped
February 22, 2006:
BAFTA Winners Announced!
The British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual awards presentation on February 21st, and they managed to dole out some love for an interesting... More...
December 16, 2005:
London Movie Critics Present Their '05 Nominations
Movie City News shares with us a press release from the London Film Critics Group in which their various nominations are announced. Keep in mind that the Brit crits use their... More...
October 05, 2005:
Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #3: The Best of the Limited Releases
In the hot summer months, everyone's looking for a way to cool down. This summer, movie audiences decided one of the best places to beat the heat was in the barren,... More...
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