The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Cœur S'est Arrêté) is tense and enthralling drama-thriller from 2005 starring Romain Duris as Thomas Seyr, a rough and shady real estate purveyor in modern-day Paris. Working under his father Robert (Niels Arestrup), Romain strong-arms immigrants and other dependents while circumventing government housing regulations—before an unlikely opportunity to explore his roots in classical music comes to fore.
The son of a concert pianist mother who died 8 years earlier, Romain chances to encounter his her former manager who recalls his competency behind the keys, and invites him to a professional audition. Aroused by the opportunity to shelve his misbegotten life of thuggery and pursue the purity of musicianship, Romain engages a Vietnamese piano virtuoso Miao Lin (Linh Dan Pham) to aid him in his preparation. Yet outstanding threat from a Russian gangster, Minskov (Anton Yakovlev), continues to haunt Romain as his divided paths slowly begin to converge.
Crafted by renowned French filmmaker Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) as a remake of James Toback’s 1978 American film Fingers, The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a dynamic and often ferocious affair, highlighted by Duris’ strikingly earnest performance as a young man torn inextricably between worlds. Major credit to Audiard as well, whose films so often balance virtue and barbarity, in creating such a profound depiction of youthful vulnerability and the pursuit of meaningfulness and personal significance.
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