4/28/11
Wild At Heart movie review – Heartbeats
The newest film by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan, who gained a lot of exposure with his award winning film “I Killed My Mother” at last year’s Cannes, is entitled “Les Amours Imaginaires” (aka “Heartbeats”). The movie follows a three way love triangle is which Dolan himself plays Francis, a gay Montrealer who becomes infatuated with a young socialite named Nicolas (Niels Schneider). Instantaneously, Francis' close friend Marie (Monia Chokri) also develops her own feelings towards Nicolas.
Both Francis and Marie, who live a sort of idealized life where they attend fabulous parties and hang out with beautiful people, are searching for the perfect mate which puts them at odds with each other. I found myself picturing a scene like the Andy Warhol scene back in the 60’s where people try to drink the right drinks, have a unique but stylish fashion sense and read the correct authors. They have a great friendship which is threatened by their dual desire to please Nicolas. The relationship starts with a threesome of sorts but then Dolan switches affections between the two in a very laissez faire way until he breaks off with both leaving them both hanging and desperate to figure out what is going on.
While the US titled makes me think of moments of love, the European translation of “Love, Imagined” is more accurate as it bring out the more narcissistic motives of both friends and questions if they are really looking for a lasting relationship or just a passionate fling as might be expected by their compatriots. There main fault is that they both become too involved and pushy which makes them looked down by their peers as they descend into this doomed relationship. Both are left reeling as Nicolas leads them on almost to see how far each will go and then slowly breaks away as things heat up for the pair like he has become tired of their affections and is ready to move on.
The way the friends react in this setting might be a bit unsettling and very remindful of Victorian era flippancy but the movie is saved by some great dialogue and a very good soundtrack though I might have done without some of the added interviews with more normal people. Still, while being slightly off, it does have its moments which are enough to let me rate it a grade of B.
This is a song by renowned French recording artist Dalida which plays heavily in the soundtrack.
