A terrific new French film tells almost the same story as last week’s terrific American indie, “Hustle &Flow.” They have completely different settings, but each follows the outline of the 1977 film “Fingers”: a musically inclined hood abruptly tries to break out of the criminal world and into music – based on the flimsiest of hopes about an old music-related acquaintance.
| New star: Terrific French remake of the 1977 film “Fingers,” about a thug who suddenly believes he can be a concert pianist. The film whipsaws between violence and lyricism on the back of Romain Duris’ performance. (In French, with English subtitles.)
Rated: R rating is for violence, language. Now showing: Harvard Exit. |
“Hustle &Flow” was set against hip-hop in Memphis, and never acknowledged “Fingers” as an influence (and perhaps the connection wasn’t even conscious). “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” takes place in Paris, with classical piano, and is an official remake of “Fingers,” although it departs from James Toback’s original film in many key ways.
The protagonist is Tom (Romain Duris), a sleek young hoodlum with a complicated system of buying and selling slum buildings. He’s gone into the family business of his father (Niels Arestrup).
However, Tom’s mother was a concert pianist, and he studied music himself as a youth. One night by chance, Tom runs into her old manager, who remembers Tom’s youthful talent and off-handedly suggests he come in for an audition.
This flimsy invitation sets Tom off on a manic jag of hope. His attention drifts from his loutish partners and he engages a deadpan Chinese piano teacher (Linh Dan Pham), who’s visiting Paris from Beijing and speaks virtually no French. Her presence is a wonderfully quiet counterpart to the rest of the movie, which has a jumpy, handheld energy much like Tom’s own nervous presence.
Both this movie and “Hustle &Flow” rely on the audience to meet them halfway; their “heroes” are hardly heroic or sympathetic, and their dreams seem absurd. But in both films, the director and lead actor create a kind of tough integrity about their movie worlds. If we met these guys in reality we might be repelled, but film dictates its own realities.
The director here is Jacques Audiard, who enjoyed an arthouse hit with his previous picture, “Read My Lips.” As though inspired by the split personality of Tom’s thuggishness and feeling for music, he keeps “The Beat” skipping between violence and lyricism, between sonata and electronica. Should this work? I’m not sure, but it does.
In Romain Duris, Audiard has an actor breaking through into his own. The lean and hungry-looking Duris, who resembles a wolf on two legs, delivers a wired performance that should make him a leading star in Europe. Duris makes you believe he could play Bach or throw a punch with equal aplomb – and that’s why we keep watching him.
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