In February 2006, the 31st Caesar Prize was announced at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris. Eight awards, including best picture and best director, went to the same film, De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté (De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté). It is a rare scene in the history of the Caesar Awards to attribute eight trophies to one film. Prior to this, the film has won more than ten film awards, including the Silver Bear for Best Music at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005, and the Best Foreign Language Film at the British Academy of Television and Film Awards (the highest British film award). "Top Ten World Movies in 2005.
Like many French films that refuse to "type", "The Rhythm My Heart Forgot" is a film that cannot be easily classified. The protagonist Thomas (Tom) is a young real estate businessman, but he is not the kind of busy and decent office white-collar in Hollywood style, but a gangster who harasses and even violently drives out the occupying households in the middle of the night. As a result, it is a business to buy real estate at a low price and sell it at a high price (including a large number of violations). He and his colleagues are violent and reckless, keen to use their fists to solve problems, and they can't avoid fighting with the National People's Congress when they go to nightclubs.
Tom listened to manic electronic music and repeated his intense and violent work. And Tom's father, fat and rude, was also an unscrupulous real estate businessman. Tom's relationship with his father was not close enough, and the father was not a respectable elder, but Tom still resorted to violence again and again in his impatience to solve difficult problems for his father.
Once, Tom met an elderly music manager. It turned out that Tom's deceased mother used to be a pianist, and the elder was her manager during her lifetime. And Tom was quite musically gifted when he was a child, with a small piano attainment. The story of the entire film and the film's protagonist, Tom, diverge at this moment: Tom, encouraged by his mother's agent (who gave Tom a chance to audition), intends to resume his piano dream. Tom began to practice the piano seriously, listening to the tapes played by his mother who had been dusty for a long time, and also hired a Vietnamese female pianist Miao Ling, who graduated from the Beijing Conservatory of Music as a guide.
After resuming his piano practice, Tom continued his "thug" career, and then from time to time, Tom couldn't help but flick his hands, revisiting and practicing the piano melody. On the other hand, Tom's colleague who has been lying for him many times was finally seen by his wife, but Tom and the angry wife had a spark of love. In the end, Tom failed the audition, and then Tom's father was killed by the underworld because of the problem of dark-line trading.
The plot pauses here and then jumps into two years later. Tom became the manager of Miao Ling, who was now a star in a solo concert. On the eve of a performance, Tom met the enemy who killed his father. After a fight, Tom reined in his horse at the moment before the murder and stepped into the theater to enjoy the performance.
The title of the film "De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté" is a lyric from the famous French singer and actor Jacques Dutronc's song "La fille du Père Noël", which literally translates to "My heart stopped beating", in the song In context, it means "the heart stops beating with excitement because of ecstasy". Tom's heart actually stopped beating because of his parents.
Tom's mother does not appear from beginning to end, the film has been narrated in linear time, without any flashbacks or interludes, so the image of the mother is completely based on the dialogue between the characters, she was a pianist, but obviously unsuccessful, and thus depressed It ended (and was abandoned by her husband), so Tom's systematic learning of the piano came to an end in his teenage years. However, Tom's piano talent and love for music and performance, and the heart-stopping for the intoxication of music is undoubtedly a gift from her.
Tom's fierce character and violent tendencies are obviously inherited from his father. The same dark career as his father made Tom's personal and professional character more and more vicious circle. Tom couldn't stand his father's bad behavior, but he was not noble either, and he was often dragged into the water by his father, causing him to be fishy. In the end, the tragic death of his father left Tom grief-stricken and his heart stopped.
The division and conflict, fusion and compromise of human nature are vividly displayed in Tom. He is violent, restless, slender and sensitive. The same pair of hands, one minute ago they were committing crimes, beating others to pieces, and one minute later they were tapping the keys, and the beautiful melody was beyond the limit. Even between his love of electronic music and playing Bach's piano music, he has become a symbol of the dual character of Tom who is popular and elegant, modern and classical, irritable and gentle. In the end, Tom chose a healthier and brighter life, and when the enemy met, the long-suppressed violent factor broke out again, but the act of giving up the knife at the critical moment showed the awakening of the soul.
"The Rhythm My Heart Forgot" is actually a remake of the 1978 American film "Fingers" directed by James Toback and starring Harvey Keitel. Comments including the American media believe that this is a remake that has completely surpassed the original, and has been sublimated from the theme to the performance.
The director of the film, Jacques Audiard (Jacques Audiard), produced a small number of films, but each work was quite successful, and "Sur mes lèvres" (Sur mes lèvres) before "The Rhythm of My Heart Forgotten" was also famous for a while. He is good at mixing various film elements. The film has the characteristics of suspense, love, thriller, humor, action, etc. It is full of originality and freshness. Features, and can make the film "good-looking" without being dull, both in terms of the dual attributes of art film and commercial film.
"The Rhythm of My Heart Forgotten" focuses on personal struggles and choices, but the director also inadvertently added many more "bigger" propositions: the apartment occupiers that Tom drove out were all illegal immigrants from Africa, who were captured by the French Screaming, shoving, and even getting punched. The target of Tom's violent debt collection for his father is North African immigrants. Immediately, the illegal entry of African immigrants and the survival problems of immigrants from the former French colonies in North Africa quietly surfaced; Tom's piano teacher and later client, Miao Ling, came from Vietnam and graduated from Beijing. In the early stage of teaching, Miao Ling did not understand French. Tom and her spoke different languages, complaining and shouting to each other in Vietnamese and French respectively. However, language barriers could not prevent a consensus on music, nor could it hinder spiritual communication - cultural conflict With cultural fusion, colonial and suzerainty issues, Chinese elements (Miao Ling's introducer is a Chinese student who plays authentic Beijing movies) ... cleverly brought together. All of these, all reflect the director's profound skills.
Romain Duris, who played Tom, entered the film industry by accident in 1996, but he has appeared in more than 20 films in less than ten years after his debut. Whether it is a commercial production or an art film, his performance is consistent. commend. Especially in "The Rhythm of My Heart Forgot", Tom, who is full of vitality, dangerous and attractive like Black Panther, is his best performance since his filming. -sexy guy". Although he was only nominated for the best actor in this Caesar Award and did not win the title, many people in the industry are quite sure of his achievements, pointing out that he will win the Caesar Award will be just around the corner.
(Additional note on March 23, 2007: I watched Roman Duris's "Spanish Apartment" and "Russian Doll" last year, and they were both good, but unfortunately the young man still hasn't won the Caesar Award)
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