Christopher Culver The 2005 French film DE BATTRE MON COEUR S'EST ARRETE ("The Beat that My Heart Skipped") is director Jacques Audiard's remake of the obscure 1978 American film FINGERS.Thomas (Romain Duris) is a shady real estate developer in Paris, releasing rats in apartment blocks to drive out the residents, then buying up the property before they can move back in. He is torn between this dishonourable profession like his scumbag father (Niels Arestrup) and a career as a concert pianist like his late mother. Seeking a way out of his violent lifestyle, he hires a Vietnamese pianist (Linh Dan Pham) to help him reach a professional level, and though they share no common language, it proves a fruitful partnership.Though the story remains powerful for much of its length, things seem somewhat rushed towards the end. It is suggested that character of Thomas' father's ex-girlfriend will play a major role, but then she disappears. And the ending itself, which I won't give away, is an ambiguous statement about whether Thomas has found peace with himself or not. Perhaps these flaws were present in FINGERS, I don't know, though I do know that the remake that is DE BATTRE has 17 minutes of new scenes, mainly dealing with Thomas' work with his piano teacher.Regardless of its plot and the comparison to the original, what makes DE BATTRE an interesting effort in itself are the performances. Many viewers will have known Romain Duris only from his turn as the innocent European manchild Xavier in 2000's L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE and its sequels. Here, however, Duris convincingly plays his occasionally villainous role and keeps up the nervousness of a man who can't find a way out.The film's soundtrack is an unusual mix of obscure pop, classical piano, and (Tom's personal favourite) the electro genre that exploded in 2005. The film music by Alexandre Desplats won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005.

Armand a film about sense of life. cruel. honest. cold. and scene for one of the greatest roles for Romain Duris.a film about the best way to define yourself. out of rules, out of expectations. and a brilliant director because the work of Audiard is an amazing embroidery. a movie out of its description because it is an ordinary case. only solution is different. I love it. for each scene, for each tool for present the heart of things. a young man against himself. and a strange form of victory. measure of events. and the side of happiness. it is remarkable not only as an impressive film school or gem from an admirable creator of powerful messages but for dark grace and for the courage to broke usual lines of story.

wes-connors "From Jacques Audiard, the acclaimed filmmaker," notes the DVD sleeve, "comes this haunting new thriller that fuses two unlikely worlds to create a stunning portrait of a young gangster. Romain Duris, in a standout performance, plays Tom, a 28-year-old who seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a Parisian property shark working in a sleazy and sometimes brutal world. However, a chance encounter with his late mother's music agent leads him to believe that he can become, like his mother, a concert pianist. In earnest, he starts preparing for the audition with the help of a beautiful, young virtuoso pianist who has just arrived from China. She doesn't speak a word of French; music is their only exchange. But pressures from the ugly world of his day job become more than he can handle…" Strange how this film has found its way into my hands before the original, US-made "Fingers" (1978), starring Harvey Keitel; more often, the American re-make of a French film predominates. Probably, the reason is that Mr. Audiard's version was immediately acclaimed as the latest work from a superior director. Re-titled "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" for English readers, this is a nicely performed character-driven crime drama. Twitching and quivering, Mr. Duris is especially memorable as the unhappy degenerate who yearns for respectability through musicianship. Unfortunately, the "shaky camera" technique gets out of hand sometimes, distracting during a couple of scenes; mostly, the wobbling stays in the realm of a sway or bounce - even when the characters are not, of course. C'est la vie.******* De battre mon coeur s'est arrete (2/17/05) Jacques Audiard ~ Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Linh-Dan Pham, Aure Atika

aFrenchparadox Struggling to find your own place after having grown up between two worlds so different you wonder how they could meet in the first place. Killing the father symbolically to reach the dead mother. Trying to catch up with a promising future you let go. Ending up living it by proxy. Finally being caught back by the world you managed to leave. Because no matter how much you feel far from a world you grew up in, it's part of you, it's constitutive by rejection or acceptation of what you became. Because you can't just turn your back and hope everything you want to ignore will disappear. Because you have to deal with your past to find a balance between your background and your expectations. Another one of those stories I cherish where it's about reaching yourself, stuck between two worlds. Also another piece where Audiard manages to make petty gangsters likable.