Tickle Your France-y with "Heartbeats"
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Photo credited to Creative Commons.
The film is a playful and sexy tale of a modern day love triangle between two close friends Francis (Xavier Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) who encounter a striking young man (Neils Schneider).
Set in French Canadian youth culture, romantic infatuation borders on obsession as Xavier Dolan brings to the screen the complexities of love and desire that anyone at any age can relate to.
"Heartbeats" was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival last year as the winner for the Youth Prize and being singled out as the official selection for 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
Xavier Dolan (director, producer, writer, and star in "Heartbeats") made his splash into the film industry with first film "I Killed My Mother" that scored three awards at 2009 Cannes Festival.
As a young filmmaker, Dolan holds great promise. His playful techniques with camera placement and light mark Dolan's distinctive and developing style as a filmmaker.
Whether it is a homoerotic sex scene or a shower of marshmallows, Dolan is able to create a visceral, sensual experience (Bonus:Xavier Dolan is quite a piece of eye candy himself).
One of the main criticisms of "Heartbeats" is that the aftertaste of the film is basal. With its limited dialogue and superficial imagery, the film was reviewed by AM New York as "never quite shakes the sense that it is a full-length perfume ad."
Yet, Xavier Dolan was striving for just that. Even he describes the film as "very “shallow."
"These people are into a very conceptual love. There’s no depth—they are literally in love with themselves through the eyes of a beautiful man… They are choosing an impossible target so they won’t have to get involved in real things. I saw no reason to have anything sincere. Basically… this film is how shallow we can be in love."
Even the title Les amours imaginaires directly translates into "love imagery" to convey the human tendency to be infatuated with visions and concepts.
If "Heartbeats" were a perfume ad on steroids, would I buy it? Hell to the Oui!
Reach reporter Ujin Kim here.
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Comments
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I can't but recommend Heartbeats by Xavier Dolan. Everything in the film is just well balanced, the picture, the musics...
This young guy is definitely talented... and he's only 22 (or 21, don't remember...).
I was actually surprised to see that his next movie is on a crowdfunding website (touscoprod.ca) in order to find money to produce it ! But i joined this opportunity to help this talented director, and I really hope that he'll get more recognition with Laurence Anyways. Here is the link : http://www.touscoprod.com/ca/pages/projet/fiche.php?s_id=2
And also an interview he did in french about it (english subs in comments) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHFziRhHFJs
Great writing-definitely cracked up after reading "Hell to the oui!"
Much appreciated!