Heartbeats: Review

23rd May 2011

Any film littered with casual references to pine-nuts and theatre automatically gets my approval. If such allusions are delivered in French by characters gazing longingly at each other while wistfully smoking, then all the better.

In Heartbeats, two friends fall into a love triangle with Nicolas, a ‘self-satisfied Adonis’ whose beauty and detached charisma has the potential to break their hearts. The reaction provoked by this blonde epitome of ‘cool’ is exquisitely played out, as the other two characters descend into behaviour which is simultaneously moody and melodramatic.

Yet it is not just Marie and Francis who have become inspired by Nicolas. Taking on his understated beauty, the film seems to echo this charismatic man’s perfection. There’s an abundance of lingering slow motion shots which betray a fixation with image. Focusing on hair and clothing, Heartbeats takes us into a world powered by beauty, a place of constant aesthetic striving.

Using talking heads throughout the show to expand on themes of adoration and obsession, Heartbeats discusses sexuality in a frank yet poetic manner. Self-consciously pretentious this may be, but Heartbeats‘ heavily stylised Indie world is excused by a brilliant soundtrack, poetic script and gently sensationalised cinematography.

Best line: I don’t want to waste my life loving you badly

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