Regie:
Xavier DolanActeurs:
Monia Chokri, Niels Schneider, Xavier Dolan, Louis Garrel, Anne Dorval, Sophie Desmarais, Olivier Morin, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Peter Benedict (meer)Samenvattingen(1)
Francis en Marie, twee vrienden, worden verliefd op dezelfde persoon. Uit de ontmoeting ontstaat een ongezonde vriendschap en binnen de kortste keren interpreteren ze, ieder vanuit hun eigen oogpunt, het dubbelzinnige en vernielende gedrag van hun beul. (Cinemien)
Recensie (5)
In terms of the director’s ability to express emotional moments in relationships, this is an exceptional movie, especially given that its maker is just 21 years old and plays the main character. Heartbeats is a very pleasant festival affair.
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He is 21 years old and has written and made and played in a film about love. The initial smirks about what such a young man might know about film and serious topics turn into a complete fascination. Heartbeats is a sparkling affair, whether with its pop art visuals or well-listened-to dialogues. The generational testimony of contemporary forms of love runs in a modern rhythm, makes irony out of itself and works with thoughtful and catchy language of colors and musical motifs. A challenging yet extremely open film that, unlike pseudo-shocking testimony about modern debauchery, goes all the way to the bone. Without any controversy and youthful efforts to stir things up. For a man who's from a different generation, the film affected me admirably.
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As with the book “Eragon”, the astonishing fact about this film is the very young age of the author (in this case, the director and screenwriter in one person). At first I was distracted (I think?) by the handheld camera and the unnatural and unjustified zooms, but I got used to it after a while. The whole film is shot in very close-ups (details of faces, heads and other body parts), so it feels somewhat intimate. A lot of the scenes are slowed down to give the viewer a sense of what's going on, and they were accompanied by beautiful music. In contrast to the close-ups, there were a lot of scenes from behind, which gave a kind of aloof impression that suggested a certain distance. The addition of various people's testimonies and colourful lighting during intimate scenes only added to the impact of this film, which I think deserves attention. A small note to end on: Maria (Monia Chokri) looked magical in her retro dress and hairstyle. All in all, a nice experience that benefits from a simple story, unforced acting and nice music and visuals.
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Once again Dolan uses a huge range of audiovisual masks in order to simulate the depth that the characters lack. He takes refuge in spatial orientation, shoots three-quarters of the frame in handheld closeups, slips into a music video several times, and tries feverishly to sell the subjective perception of destructive lovemaking. Except that he has nothing but poorly written, affected, inanimate vessels for love with no integrity. For me to be able to understand loss of self due to painful infatuation, there first has to be a self to lose. But the characters here don't exist outside of their scenes.
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It may be a bit sad, but I will remember this film not for how it deals with love and its various forms, but for the music that played during the film, which I very much enjoyed. I was enthralled by it and was carried away at times just by its tones and words. I was thrilled with the film in this respect. Not so much otherwise.
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