Les Amours Imaginaires

I know the French know how to make movies. Amelie is a classic. A Very Long Engagement was another dope one. And just last year, Le Dîner de Cons was remade and repackaged by Hollywood starring Steve Carel and Zach Galifianakis (I liked the French version better.)

I had high hopes for Heartbeats, originally titled Les Amours Imaginaires. I was disappointed. The movie is stylish, but shallow.

This is the story of three teenagers. The setting is Montreal, Canada. Marie (Monia Chokri) and Francis (Xavier Dolan) are hip outcasts and best friends. Marie’s style icon is Audrey Hepburn while Francis wants to be James Dean. They smoke non-stop, scowl at parties, and engage in meaningless sex. They are both listless.

That changes when they notice Nicolas (Niels Schneider.) He is handsome, confident, charming, and more alive than either of them. Marie and Francis become fixated. The more they want Nicolas, the closer they get to destroying each other.

Saturday Night Live produced a similar story a couple of weeks ago with the recurring skit, “Les Jeunes de Paris.” The satire characterizes French kids by placing them in fashionable clothes, having them make out with each other, slap each other, and dance around. This mirrors the basic premise of Heartbeats.

A better coming-of-age love triangle movie would be Y Tu Mama Tambien, the 2001 Mexican film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.

The Dreamers, produced in 2003, is another example of a movie exploring similar themes, but doing it a lot better.

Half of Heartbeats is made up of slow motion sequences. Slow motion walking, slow motion smoking, slow motion lovemaking. Enough with the slow motion. The music playing over the scenes sounds Euro and retro and cool. But enough is enough.

I give the movie a D-. Please don’t think that this is representative of French films or foreign films in general.

The last scene in Heartbeats is interesting because it shows the characters one year after the major events in the story. They have changed, but only superficially, trading their retro clothes for 1980’s disco outfits. This hints at the disposable nature of their style, their relationships, and their lives.