The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Director: Jacques Audiard
Year Released: 2005
Rating: 3.0
Simple but effective remake of James Toback's Fingers about a thug and pianist - an artist and a savage - who tries to balance both jobs yet finds great difficulty in doing so because his surviving parent (his father) is the one who keeps him from committing his life to music. I'd never seen any of Audiard's films before this - and only read a tiny bit about it - so while watching I was under the impression it was a Claude Chabrol film - of course Chabrol had nothing to do with it, but that's a fine compliment for the director, as this 'feels' - to me, at least - like a Chabrol picture (middlebrow, efficient, shades of suspense). Romain Duris - playing the Harvey Keitel role - is just gritty enough to make for a plausible tough guy and just introspective enough to be a dedicated musician.
