Heartbeats

French-Canadian romance about three hipsters ensnared in a love triangle. From 21-year-old filmmaker Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother). A winner and sensation at Cannes Film Festival 2010.

“Francis (Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) are a couple of drop-dead gorgeous 20-something hipsters whose friendship is rocked when they both fall for Nicolas (Niels Schnieder). Luscious and elusive, the curly-headed blonde flirts with both of them and enjoys the power of his attractiveness… Dolan, plundering world cinema’s entire bag of tricks, makes this familiar tale sing, depicting his characters’ romantic obsession in gorgeous Wong Kar-wai-esque slo-mo and offsetting their lack of self-awareness with Woody Allen-esque direct-camera interviews (these interviews are themselves worth the price of admission)… It’s hugely refreshing, given the insane degree to which art cinema is now ruled by what one might call The New Austerity, to see somebody exploring the medium’s lush, seductive, expressionistic possibilities with such unbridled enthusiasm.” (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)

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