![]() But once I realized that Dolan’s overbearing style was going to be the driving force of the story and not continuity, I really did not mind. It was definitely unexpected and I can see why some view it negatively, as it disrupts the flow, especially near the end when the film starts to really pick up as the characters are all in conflict with each other. He said he added it to bring punctuation to the film and that using “real life people” was a way to say more about love, opposed to the just the love triangle presented through the narrative. ![]() The direct addresses have camera framing jerks to make it feel as if it was a documentary and Dolan admits this is inspired by Husbands and Wives. The most controversial technique that he explores here that critics seem to call out as a failure and a disruption to the film are the sudden cuts to the random interviews of young people talking about failed relationships, that seem to foreshadow the events of the main characters. His framings also emphasise his costume design and fashion of his characters that give the film a very contemporary look associated with the rise of the “hipster” style of today’s youth culture. I really was taken back by these moments as I felt that they resemble the flustering of a “heartbeat” of the characters and their compassion towards another human being.ĭolan also has several extreme close-ups of body parts to highlight the body and draw attention to the sexuality of the characters, like shots of Maire’s butt in her new dress, and the back of Francis’s head to show his new James Dean haircut. Similarly near the end when they decide to repair their broken friendship they are walking outside in the rain and Marie covers both of them with her umbrella in slow motion and the traffic and rain are in real time. They stand next to each other talking about him and denying any attraction, and then the speed shifts to slow motion as they each separately take turns glancing at him, while the chopping sound remains in real time. For example Francis and Marie are cutting vegetables in the kitchen at a dinner party when they both first notice Nicolas. Through I think there are New Wave styles in Heartbeats, there are plenty of other techniques that Dolan seems to now own in his arsenal of style including slow motion shots of his characters with real time sound. This kind of film is for film fluent people, and sometimes certain styles scream particular directors or iconic films. Dolan denies any such claim by critics who would compare his films to those of Godard and rejects notions of people reading into his films, but I think it’s necessary especially since his characters themselves try to embody movie star icons James Dean and Audrey Hepburn. Another New Wave influence that stood out to me was his uses of primary colors in bedroom sex scenes that are very reminiscent of shots of Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli in Godard’s Contempt. ![]() This film has been dubbed as a hyperstylized Jules and Jim update because of its love triangle premise, though I found its shallow characters to be more like those of Godard’s Masculine Feminine, which is also about naïve twenty-somethings in complicated love triangles. Francis played by Dolan and Marie (Monia Chokri) are best friends who after meeting a “gorgeous” new guy Nicolas (Niels Schnider), quickly develop a joint fixation that will test their friendship as they compete for his affection. Heartbeats is simply about three Montréal hipsters in a love triangle. Dolan may deny these influences but they are obvious in his themes, an emphasis on style that embraces a filmmaking approach that is attractive to a youth culture audience rather than a mainstream audience. ![]() I understand Dolan’s denial of such a bold label that sounds as if he was unoriginal and merely mimicking the style of these films, but what I think those critics are noticing is, like Jean Luc Godard’s use of the jump-cut and even Orson Welles’s use of depth of field and long takes in their early films, there is a cautious decision to put style first over the clear orientation of the narrative, in an attempt to give their films a personal touch. Dolan is often accused of trying to “bring back” the French New Wave, and he denies any such thing. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats simply because I was able to recognize very early in the film he put “style over substance.” Not to say that there is not a message in the film about love and friendship, but that he recognizes the many stylistic possibilities with film and uses them to shape his story. ![]()
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