Press Kit - New Yorker Films

THE BEAT
THAT MY HEART
SKIPPED
Why Not Productions present
55th BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
IN COMPETITION
THE BEAT
THAT MY HEART
SKIPPED
Romain Duris
in a film by Jacques Audiard
with : Niels Arestrup, Linh-Dan Pham, Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos, Jonathan Zaccaï, Gilles Cohen
Celluloid Dreams
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written by : Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benacquista
based on FINGERS, a film written and directed by James Toback
France - 2005 - 107' - Color - 1:85 - Dolby SRD
SYNOPSIS
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Tom is 28 and destined to follow in his
father's footsteps in the sleazy and
sometimes brutal world of the real estate
business. But a chance encounter leads
him to believe that he can become, like
his mother, a concert pianist. In earnest,
he starts preparing for the audition with a
virtuoso Chinese pianist. She doesn't
speak a word of French, music is their
only exchange. But pressures from the
ugly world of his day job soon become
more than he can handle...
JACQUES
AUDIARD
PREVIOUS WORK
2004
THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
2001
READ MY LIPS
1996
A SELF MADE HERO
1994
SEE THE MEN FALL
Director, screenwriter
INTERVIEW
WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA OF MAKING
A NEW VERSION OF JAMES TOBACK'S FINGERS?
My producer, Pascal Caucheteux, had just finished producing Jean-François Richet's remake of John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON
PRECINCT 13. He came to me and said, "Do you want to do a remake? If so, which would it be?" Well, the answer was obvious.
It would have to be James Toback's FINGERS. Why? Because the film had such a big impact on me when it came out, of course.
But also because it was a film that it is difficult to see now. It's not shown much, so it has acquired a kind of aura of mystery.
Basically, FINGERS represents the tail end of the comet of seventies American independent cinema. The hero - Tom, or Johnny, I
can't remember the character's name - is played by Harvey Keitel, just shortly after his performance in Martin Scorsese's MEAN
STREETS. Much of the rest of the cast comes out of Coppola's “world”. It's a very well connected movie!
When I screened it for Tonino Benacquista, I wondered if I hadn't oversold it to him. The plot is full of gaps, the story's got these
great highs, but some real lows too. And there's a certain amount of cinematic posturing that ages badly.
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SO WHY ARE YOU
SO FOND OF FINGERS?
Because of the various themes, both the obvious themes and
the underlying, things like: "Fatherhood", "Motherhood", "What DID YOU LOOK TO ANY
it means to be a son" and "How you can change your life?",
OTHER FILMS FOR INSPIRATION?
"The price of doing what it is you have to do", "The business of
I don't really think we needed many other references.
becoming an adult, how a man becomes a man…"
FINGERS was quite enough! But Tonino and I did watch films
by James Foley - like GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, which is set in
WHY DID YOU SET
the world of real estate, in a very masculine world. It's a hardhitting picture that oozes unease. Set in one location, free form
THE FILM - THE CRIME - IN THE WORLD
and yet tightly constrained by formal parameters.
OF REAL ESTATE?
The original is set among New York's Italian mafia. That
wasn't going to work for us. And when we sat down to think WHY DID YOU MAKE
of something new, Tonino and I came up with real estate THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
pretty fast (we'd already used it, after a fashion, in READ MY SUCH A REALISTIC PICTURE?
LIPS.) Specifically, we wanted to plunge into a world of petty Well, because film is always realistic. And also because, the
real-estate investors, whose behaviour isn't mindful of legal more implausible an initial premise seems (can a man be a
niceties, not really moral. Aside from which, there is, to my concert pianist and a good-for-nothing real estate dealer at
mind, a parallel of sorts between the way a conman obtains the same time?), the more realistically the story has to unfold.
control over other people's lives and the way a real estate Otherwise the characters aren't going to be believable, nor is
investor obtains control over the land that people live on, land the plot, nor are the actual scenes… Besides which, realism
that is occupied. Both are appropriating something that's not brings a moral scale. A movie's realism introduces useful
there to be appropriated.
constraints: I know what is right and what is wrong. I can see
how difficult it is for the protagonist to switch from evil to
good, that it's no pushover, it costs him something. I decided
to shoot the picture on the fly, to take locations and whatever
Yes, they are the rats. And like rats, they end up eating each light there was as they came. I decided not to worry about
other alive. That's the point of the scene.
lighting continuity. To make do with whatever came up.
THE RAT SCENE POINTS TO THE SORDIDNESS
OF THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS…
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WHY IS THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
SHOT IN SINGLE-SHOT SCENES?
In Toback's film, the Harvey Keitel character is permanently
stoned, almost pathologically so. I didn't want to use that, it
seemed facile, too explanatory somehow. But I wanted a
fast-moving picture, that didn't seem too rehearsed or
staged, not too formal (whatever that means). I wanted a
modest picture (whatever that means). I wanted something
fast moving and yet close enough to the character to provide
emotion and feeling. The paradox was that I wanted to feel
Tom's emotions and pace, without relying on over-insistent
jump cutting. Single-shot scenes demand plausible angles
that match an actor's natural pacing, that show the way he
breathes and moves. Shooting in long takes frees things up
for the actors. If the angles are too formal, the actors end up
pushed into the nooks and crannies of a set. They're
blocked. They can't perform.
HOW DID YOU CAST
ROMAIN DURIS AS TOM?
WHY IS THE OUTSIDE WORLD OFF-SCREEN
FOR THE MOST PART?
In my movies, the characters have to be heroes. The question
is, how are they going to become heroes? And what will
become of them when they stop being heroes? What
challenges must they overcome? I provide answers to those
questions, by - in formal terms - keeping the outside world at
bay, by keeping it off-screen. My hero has to push his way
through the world like some invading force on the march.
From the beginning or very nearly from the beginning,
I realized that THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED would have
to draw its strength from the actor or actors. They would have
to be in tight shot. The context around them would only exist
in terms of sound, and in terms of someone coming on to say
what was going on elsewhere. Which is a theatrical device.
I needed an actor at a crossroads, both in terms of his career
and in terms of his personal life. That was part of the film's
subject matter. And then I needed someone fairly younglooking, who would be credible both as a real-estate investor
and as a music addict. I've been watching Romain's progress
for ten years now, since LE PÉRIL JEUNE, made when he was
only twenty. I've seen him evolve and mature… And then one
always casts someone for the simple reason that one wants
to film them… I couldn't just point a camera at anyone.
Romain stimulates one's appetite. One wants to move around
him, to watch the way he moves.
WHY DOES TOM DECIDE NOT TO
AVENGE HIS FATHER?
Because revenge is not the answer. I thought it would be
more interesting to see someone shoving a gun into another
person's mouth and deciding not to kill them, than deciding
to kill them. Killing people is easy in movies, but for most
people in real life it's tough - I imagine so anyway. Or
rather, I don't imagine that, I need to think it. I need to think
killing is not easy. Otherwise, this is no more than a jungle
we're living in. Tom had to be a bigger person at the end of
the movie than he was at the beginning. So killing someone
wasn't going to help us. In Toback's original, everyone's out
of their mind. It's a different story.
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NIELS ARESTRUP
PLAYS TOM'S FATHER.
He is an ogre and ogres should be soft-spoken, effeminate in
some way, despite the virility of their physique, despite the
authority they project… Tom Thumb needs to hear the
gentleness of his mother's voice inside the ogre for the hairs
on the back of his neck to stand on end…. Niels Arestrup's
voice is a feminine voice. Very carefully pitched, almost a
whisper… But when the mics are saturated it turns into the
voice of the Devil… And then, with the father-character,
I wanted to investigate a particular point in father/son
relationships, when fathers become their son's sons - which
is also how sons discover that they don't live forever.
WHY THE EPILOGUE, TWO YEARS LATER?
That's the time it takes for Miao-Lin's talent to become
public knowledge, thanks to Tom. The time required to show
IS MR FOX A STROKE OF
that their affair is real. Time, also, for Tom to realize that
GOOD FORTUNE IN TOM'S LIFE?
Meeting Mr Fox makes him understand the nature of his Miao-Lin is the love of his life, a woman he loves and
relationship with his father. Tom wants the audition to admires, perhaps.
succeed. For it to do so, he has to abandon his father and
symbolically return to his mother (the piano represents his WHY DO CHRIS AND ALINE VANISH?
mother). Fox provides a timetable and an obligation. If Tom The film is the story of a man growing up. He grows up
had not met him, he would probably have carried on looking because music teaches him that wheeling and dealing is a
after his father. But now he has to become aware of their dead end. As a result of this, he understands women better.
relationship and the limits to that relationship. Mr Fox can He can speak to them now and is able to tell Aline he loves
also be seen as a sublimated version of the father, the ideal her. But the main thing driving him on is music. And it is with
father, who is loving, reliable and just. A hidden father. A Miao-Lin that things become real, which is not surprising
because she is a woman and a musician.
mother-father.
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THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED
RELIES HEAVILY ON MUSIC, HOW DID ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
DESIGN THE MUSIC FOR THE FILM?
The fact that Tom had to listen to and play a great deal of
music in the film meant that Alexandre's job was pretty clear:
he had to compose something which would be part filmmusic, part JS Bach. Alexandre mainly worked on Tom's
character, to accompany his different moods. His music never
underlines the action, it does not create tension or suspense.
It's Tom's theme. I don't know if there is such a thing as
"psychological music", but it might apply.
WHY DID YOU KEEP
BACH'S E MINOR TOCCATA THAT HARVEY KEITEL
PLAYS IN THE ORIGINAL?
In the TOCCATAS, unlike in the MASSES or the PASSIONS,
Bach is a keyboard theorist. The TOCCATAS are austere,
difficult, virtuoso pieces. It's geometrical music, without much
show of feeling, without any kind of romanticism. If Tom had
played Schubert, for instance, he would have had to perform
the music, to inject pathos and expression. Heart. Which would
get too close to Tom's troubles. Is he able to express himself?
Does he have a heart? He can only play pieces like the
TOCCATAS, because the only question is; can I play the right
notes at the right speed in the right order?
TONINO
BENACQUISTA
Writer, screenwriter
Tonino Benacquista's first book NAILED LIKE A PIN-UP IN A GI'S LOCKER was published in 1985, followed, four years later,
by SLEEPING-CAR MADONNA. In 1991, LOSERS' COMMEDIA hit the big time, winning three different prizes in France.
Other books by Benacquista include DAWN BITES, THREE RED SQUARES ON A BLACK BACKGROUND, SAGA, SOMEONE
ELSE and most recently MALAVITA, several of which have won further prizes.
This is Benacquista's second screenplay, following on from a previous collaboration with Jacques Audiard, READ MY LIPS,
winner of France's Best Screenplay César.
INTERVIEW
FINGERS
I hadn't seen FINGERS when Jacques asked me to adapt it. Real movie fans remembered it as an amazing experience.
They remembered Harvey Keitel torn between the mafia and a concert piano, some of them even remembered scenes
that aren't in the movie… When I saw it, I didn't like it too much. It was too loose, too "look at me, I'm a cult movie". I
wasn't too sure about the story either, I saw problems transposing it to France and to the present-day. But we had
Jacques' enthusiasm and my reservations and we knew we could combine them.
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METAMORPHOSIS
We wanted to show a character blossoming as if, for the
first time in his life, he starts asking himself certain things
and starts, also, making demands of himself. From the
moment he is invited to audition, the process of
metamorphosis begins: even though he keeps his job in
real-estate, the pace of his life changes. From then on he
exists, in two separate worlds. He is based in the one, but
the possibility of passing into the other is now real: he really
may become a concert pianist. I think most people can
identify with his desire to be better than he is, with his wish
for personal emancipation.
FILM NOIR
MIAO-LIN
When Mr Fox offers Tom an audition, he does not know
where he has got to with his piano playing. His abilities need
evaluating. The wrong thing, we thought, because it would
not have worked, would have been for him to have to
confront someone very erudite, very professional. From a
narrative point of view, musicological detail would have
proven superfluous - an encumbrance. Which is how we
came up with this young Asian woman, a brilliant pianist in
ADAPTATION
We kept Toback's initial premise but changed everything else. need of a job. There was something else we liked about her:
We added female characters, we got rid of the mother - who her amorous potential. Her gestures, her pauses, her
only survives in her son's imagination. I guess the character glances could all show signs of indignation, show upset and
anxiety, a whole gamut of emotion traversing her.
closest to the original is the father, played by Niels Arestrup.
This isn't film noir, even though it's got violence and guns and
mafia and stuff. Jacques and I both read a lot of thrillers, but
we weren't into that kind of imagery for this picture. It had to
be a story about a man growing up, that's all. THE BEAT THAT
MY HEART SKIPPED is not a genre movie. The truth is that
Jacques Audiard's pictures are never genre movies.
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WOMEN
One of the ways in which to understand the change in Tom is in
terms of the way in which he comes to accept women into his
life, the way he watches them and listens to them… He reaches
a point of maturity. Amongst other things, he allows himself a
love affair with the wife of a colleague and friend - in other
words he slams the door on his virile, macho friends' code of
honour. This is a point of no return. He apologizes to Chris, after
having behaved contemptuously towards her for the first time.
And then there is the young lady he meets in the changingrooms: he tries to boost her confidence. He whispers the magic
words "Be whatever you want to be", which could easily apply
to him. In THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, as with any film
which is about how human beings acquire secret knowledge
and experience, Tom brings about a revolution in himself so he
may find out where he belongs - which is beside a woman who
happens to be a brilliant pianist.
MINSKOV
People often remember the final fight scene in FINGERS which
is very crude. As far as Jacques and I were concerned, Tom
was going to go as far as possible, he would avenge his father.
But when we finished the screenplay, we realized that he
could not kill Minskov anymore. When he meets him by the
elevator, by chance, the violence in him is just beginning to
stir: it is a golden opportunity to deal with everything once and
for all. But if Tom were to kill him, the whole edifice would
collapse. The killing would somehow trivialize the plot, ending
on a "A leopard can't change its spots" kind of theme. It was
weird realizing that by the time we were through with the
TOM AND HIS FATHER
The brutality of the father/son relationship notwithstanding, writing, our protagonist had so altered that he would no longer
there is a great deal of affection between the two men - and be able to murder.
the way Jacques shoots certainly brings this out. The Father is
an authoritarian, he controls his son and regards him as a YOUR THEMES
subordinate. Yet at the same time he calls him asking for help. There has to be some kind of connection between the
Tom protects his father. The pre-title sequence shows how the screenplay and my novels, but it is not a connection I can
father/son relationship can switch. The father can weaken, make myself, I'd have trouble analyzing the themes.
become fragile and require assistance. Which is not just Tom's Something about impunity maybe, or the second chance
story of course, but everyone's.
that we can all give ourselves.
FATHER CHRISTMAS'
DAUGHTER
La Fille du Père Noël
(Jacques Dutronc and Jacques Lanzman)
Je l'ai trouvée au petit matin
Toute nue dans mes grands souliers
Placés devant la cheminée
Pas besoin de vous faire un dessin
I found her at sunrise
Naked in my boots
Standing in the fireplace
Just picture her there
De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté
Sur le lit j'ai jeté mon fouet
Tout contre elle je me suis penché
Et sa beauté m'a rendu muet
Fatigué j'ai la gueule de bois
Toute la nuit j'avais aidé mon père
Dans le feu j'ai remis du bois
Dans la cheminée y avait pas son père
The beat that my heart skipped
Onto the bed I threw my whip
Against her I pressed
Her beauty struck me dumb
I was tired and hung-over
All night I had helped my father
I threw a log on the fire
Her father was not up the chimney
C'est la fille du Père Noël
J'étais le fils du Père Fouettard
Elle s'appelait Marie Noël
Je m'appelais Jean Balthazar
She is Father Christmas' daughter
I was the Bogeyman's son
Her name was Marie Noël
My name was Jean Balthazar
(… continues)
ROMAIN
DURIS
Filmographie
2004
THE RUSSIAN DOLLS by Cédric Klapisch
THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED by Jacques Audiard
2003
ARSENE LUPIN by Jean-Paul Salomé
EXILES by Tony Gatlif
OSMOSE by Raphaël Fejto
2002
PAS SI GRAVE by Bernard Rapp
LE DIVORCE by James Ivory
ADOLPHE by Benoît Jacquot
2001
17 TIMES CECILE CASSARD by Christophe Honoré
L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE by Cédric Klapisch
2000
C.Q. by Roman Coppola
SCHIMKENT HOTEL by Charles de Meaux
BEING LIGHT by Jean-Marc Barr et Pascal Arnold
TOM THUMB by Olivier Dahan
1999
MAYBE by Cédric Klapisch
1998
LES KIDNAPPEURS by Graham Guit
JE SUIS NE D'UNE CIGOGNE by Tony Gatlif
1997
ALREADY DEAD by Olivier Dahan
THE CRAZY STRANGER by Tony Gatlif
DOBERMANN by Jan Kounen
1996
WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY by Cédric Klapisch
MEMOIRE D'UN JEUNE CON by Patrick Aurignac
1994
LE PERIL JEUNE by Cédric Klapisch
MADEMOISELLE PERSONNE By Pascale Bailly
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Actor
STÉPHANE
FONTAINE
Director of Photography
Has worked, amongst other films, on LOOK AT ME (Comme une Image) by Agnès Jaoui; LÉO - EN JOUANT DANS LA COMPAGNIE
DES HOMMES by Arnaud Desplechin; LA VIE NOUVELLE by Philippe Grandrieux, BRONX BARBÈS by Eliane de Latour.
INTERVIEW
FINGERS
The most interesting thing to me about the original movie was what it meant to Jacques. The Harvey Keitel character, with his
permanent savagery… But, I didn't want to base things on the Toback movie, a reference like that becomes a handicap very
swiftly. There is one homage, in the audition scene, when the light is very much "in the style of…"
PRE-PRODUCTION
The first few times Jacques and I met, our conversations were fairly straightforward. Who is Tom? What makes us want
to accompany him? Who are the people he works with? Who is this oppressively present father of his and who is this
unavoidably absent mother of his? None of this was considered in formal terms at that point. But, aesthetically speaking
I don't think Jacques starts writing until he knows what he wants to the final object to resemble. He probably had images
in his mind. But he either let me find the film for myself or, more likely, he pointed me in the right direction… A director
directs his cast, but he must direct the crew too. Technical issues aside, pre-production is about allowing the film to
formulate in everyone's mind. As long as one is in that frame of mind, things happen naturally during the shoot.
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CLAUSTROPHOBIA
If you follow one character alone, handheld, for an entire movie,
there is a danger of claustrophobia. And if that character is at all
stifled, the audience are going to feel stifled too. Which is why it
was essential we allowed Tom freedom of movement, even
though he often found himself in confined spaces and dark,
dense atmospheres. We were there with him, right by him. If he
listened carefully, I'm sure he could hear the whirring of the
camera, our breathing even. Romain and I got on extremely well
together, It's great working with an actor so aware of what the
camera is doing. As if he was framing the shots. It would be
interesting to know whether he knew instinctively that that was
what was going on. Romain was always very focused, very “on
the ball” as Jacques might say.
HANDHELD CAMERA
DARKNESS
Everything is shot from Tom's point of view, there are almost
no exceptions. Otherwise the impact would be felt
immediately - we would be in another film. The Beat That My
Heart Skipped is almost first person from beginning to end. It's
consistently about empathizing with Tom. The camera
accompanies him, in single-take, scene-length, handheld
shots, but these are not obvious. The camera is an organic part
of the character, it has to feel the same things that Tom feels,
experience the things he experiences, stand as close to or as
far from other characters as he does. Shooting handheld does
not necessarily mean being frenetic. It's really about keeping
pace with the various characters' breathing patterns.
In the scene in the squat, when they throw everyone out, the
camera is jittery, because it shares Tom's point of view. But as
soon as we reverse the shot on him, it's still. It stands as still
as he does, as he focuses on the evictions… A way to indicate
that he no longer shares his friends' point of view.
Tom is very pleasant, very amiable. He can play piano in a bar
somewhere, be good company, all of that but he does not
reveal much about himself. He has to have his back against
the wall before he'll start showing much. He likes nothing so
much as the dark. His apartment is in shadow, even at
midday. The important thing from my point of view was to
know how far I dared not light him, to what extent he would
be able to stand the sombreness of his image. Which is what
the whole story is about in a way, the time it takes for
someone to be revealed to themselves.
I believe that there is one key shot in the movie: when he
leaves the audition, he walks down a street which is partly in
light and partly in shade, the contrast is strong, aggressive
almost. In the end, when the camera reaches Tom, he is
standing in a full blaze of sunlight, dazzled by the sun. He's
failed his audition but he has learnt something. There has
been failure, but he knows that he has finally become Tom.
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PEACEFULNESS
The most luminous and peaceful location in the film is
Miao-Lin's apartment, where he takes his piano lessons.
Even though he does not always succeed in playing as well
as he would like, there is less tension - at least that is what
the light tells us. Except, "the first time", when he discusses
terms, in the darkness of the corridor, which is like
negotiating with a prostitute. He gives her the money and
she shows him the piano in her bedroom.
FILMING WOMEN
We are so close to Tom that we cannot see any of the other
characters other than through his eyes. Which makes filming
Aline/Aure or Chris/Emmanuelle hard, because Tom is not at
ease with them. It keeps coming back to the fact that he won't
settle down in a relationship. Conversely, filming Miao-Lin was
easy. So easy that no one minds that she speaks Vietnamese,
that he responds in French, and they understand each other
perfectly. In her case, the audition provides a goal, it's a
functional relationship. But from one lesson to the next, we
realize this is the only place where he pauses for breath… A
couple of scenes in the kitchen, a word or two exchanged,
something beginning.
FILMING MURDER
Film makes killing look easy. Killing a man is a difficult thing
to do, a very violent thing. In the epilogue, when Tom fails to
kill Minskov, the camera stays on Minskov. If it shifted to
Romain, it would observe him and thus it would suggest to
the audience that Tom has changed, he has understood
something. That is not the camera's purpose. It is not there
to give clues, to give lessons.
JULIETTE
WELFLING
Editor
Juliette Welfling has cut all Jacques Audiard's films. She also worked on Albert Dupontel's BERNIE, Oliver Dahan's
ALREADY DEAD and TOM THUMB, A MATTER OF TASTE by Bernard Rapp, THE WAR IN PARIS by Yolande Zaubermann,
JANIS AND JOHN by Samuel Benchetrit, RRRR!!!! by Alain Chabat…
INTERVIEW
CONSTRUCTION
I've cut all Jacques Audiard's films and I don't understand how every time he manages to make it so hard for us to find
the picture's narrative structure. In THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, there are few scenes, and that emphasizes a
picaresque quality. Aside from when the father dies, or when he meets Minskov, no specific order of scenes is imposed.
Some scenes seemed almost interchangeable, and that gave us a huge amount of freedom in the cutting room. But it's
this freedom that makes it so hard from an editing point of view.
DURATION, DISPROPORTION
Some scenes which are not particularly important to the history of the character, paradoxically, last for quite a long time,
whereas there are other scenes which are very short that really shift the plot forwards. For instance, the scene in which
Tom picks up Minskov's girlfriend, in a cubicle at the swimming-pool, is shot almost in real time. But the girl means almost
nothing to Tom, unlike Aline, with whom he is in love and who hardly appears on film… We had one shot when he was
on the phone to her, another where he stared at her legs on the stairs and another where they were in bed together. We
had to make scenes of disproportionate length work together, in such a way that the characters significant to Tom's life
are significant to the audience too.
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TOM'S POINT OF VIEW
Tom is omnipresent. We realized things only really worked
when seen from his point of view. For example, Jacques had
shot an angle showing Chris outside of Tom's point of view. We
were never able to use it. It didn't work. It is as if the film had TOM IS A PIANIST BUT HE IS HIS FATHER'S SON
developed its own antibodies that rejected anything that was In the original screenplay, there was a scene in a night-club in
not seen from the protagonist's point of view.
which Tom played an Axelle Red song on the piano. It was the
second or third scene. After much debate, it was cut…
Because, good though it was, it provided us with a Tom who
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTINUITY
Establishing psychological continuity is what happens when was too apart from the people around him, too artistic, too
you set one scene beside another… To take one example, the marked out and pre-destined… The idea, on the contrary, was
scene in which Tom goes into aesthetic shock on seeing that he should have to travel from one life into another. We
Aline's body cut out against the light of a doorway. If the next needed to see him doubting, making progress, suddenly
scene showed him in a foul mood, at his piano lesson, it quickening. If nothing changes between the beginning and the
wouldn't have worked. The character is on a psychological middle, a story does not work: in this case, seeing the piano
journey. He starts off thinking only about his job, his money, his too soon would have detracted from its special significance.
wheeling and dealing. Then, gradually, he moves on to When Tom sits down to play, in the final version, I think the
something different. We tried to make that notion even audience is somewhat taken aback, whereas in FINGERS,
stronger than it is in the screenplay. Editing is about fiddling Harvey Keitel is seen playing the piano in the very first shot.
with everything, turning everything upside down even, but the But Tom's character is not as crazy, not as violent, his is a
aim remains to end up with something as close to the original completely different story. In THE BEAT THAT MY HEART
screenplay as possible. Tom had to go on that journey: he had SKIPPED the father/son story is what counts. Playing the
to change, to grow up, to fall in love. Telling the story of a piano is a means for Tom, to become someone else. It enables
single character is not easy. You never know whether there'll him to leave his father and grow up. THE BEAT THAT MY
be enough material to keep us interested, to keep us on our HEART SKIPPED is really about a father and son, much more
than it's about a man wanting to pass an audition.
toes, to touch us, over the whole duration: 107 minutes.
VIRGINIE
MONTEL
Costume Designer
Virginie Montel has worked with Mathieu Kassowitz (LA HAINE & ASSASSIN(S)), with Frédéric Schoendoerffer (CRIME
SCENES & SECRET AGENTS), with Dominik Moll (HARRY, HE'S HERE TO HELP & LEMMING), Pierre Salvadori (THE
SANDMEN & APRÈS VOUS) and on Sophie Fillières' OUCH, Christian Carion's THE GIRL FROM PARIS, Jacques Audiard's
READ MY LIPS and Gilles Marchand's WHO KILLED BAMBI?
INTERVIEW
WORK IN PROGRESS
The lighting cameraman, the production design team, the hairdresser, the make-up artist… we all work together. Our
discussions are not really about light in technical terms, or the way such and such a cloth may reflect light, but about what it
can tell us something about the characters' inner feelings. Those discussions are on going throughout the pre-production
period. Even when we're shooting, everything has to remain very flexible, no decisions are final, everything can change
according to a particular performance, and the needs of a scene. Jacques Audiard never sets anything in stone.
As far as I'm concerned, making a film is sharing one's life with other people. You don't just dress actors up in designer label
clothes to look as beautiful as possible, because that would be forcing them into a straightjacket. You have to start off with a
set of constraints that the story demands, if it is to be realistic, if it is set in a particular period, if it contains certain special
scenes, if certain specific actors perform it and we need to work with who they are… These are real people. Costumes are a
form of sociology really. There should be natural feel to the choice of a particular garment. Then, the garment will need
humanizing, not in the sense of matching certain social codes, but in order for the audience to look at the character and not
the garments. Costumes are there to provide a clue as to the world the character inhabits. Terms like "beauty", "ugliness",
"cool", "passé" mean nothing. You have to get rid of categories like that.
24
STYLING CHRIS, ALINE AND MIAO-LIN
26
27
FIRST FITTINGS
We started out having Tom wear the same suits his friends
wear, a kind of neutral shell for men that don't like
complications. Except this didn't work. It made Tom transparent.
It was realistic enough, it suited the everyday needs of the film,
but it told us nothing about him, nothing about the character's
inner self. Tom's world began to take shape when Jacques
thought of the headphones - which are a musician's security
blanket really. Music is the private world he inhabits. When Tom
takes up the piano again, it's something he's had inside him
from the start.
THE FATHER'S YELLOW JACKET
CHELSEA BOOTS
We must have tried out fifteen different pairs of boots. The boots
are very important because they give Tom his way of walking,
his style.You need a degree of self-confidence to wear the shoes
he wears. They're pretty rock 'n roll, but totally unselfconscious.
We were looking for something to make the character more
whole, that would make him more masculine and at the same
time show sensitivity, gentleness, an inner child.
Tom is a cockerel. He's very Latin. A bullfighter - graceful yet
virile. By the end of the film, he's given up his Chelsea boots,
because his life has changed. He has switched to a more
classic style, without the heel.
I refused to see FINGERS because I was worried the period
reference would contaminate me. I still haven't seen it, even
though the idea for the yellow suit came from there. A form of
homage, and Jacques Audiard's idea. In the 70s, yellow was
OK. It isn't today. We had to somehow make it work without
the father looking ridiculous or period. Which is why he only
wears the jacket. Robert's yellow jacket is a bit like Tom's
Chelsea boots. They indicate a degree of self-confidence,
something that sets them apart from Fabrice (Jonathan
Zaccaï) or Sami (Gilles Cohen), who shift towards more
conventional styles. What they want is a label, a woman who
is the equivalent of the latest BMW…
Chris and Aline belong to the world of their men. As far as
the father is concerned, Chris is a knockout. Some people
may think she looks tasteless, with her loud, sexy dress, so
tight it shows everything, but who cares! The thing that
counts is that she is credible in the father's world, she's
part of it. When she reappears later, in a black dress that's
more urbane, she's different. Immediately, we understand
that she has left Robert.
Aline is a similar story. She's a stunning woman that a wildboy like Fabrice can brag about. She's not classy, that
wouldn't work. But she mustn't be too vulgar either.
Miao-Lin is different. I started out with an idea of an
anonymous street-look. I hung out in Paris' Chinatown, in
the thirteenth arrondissement. The actress is such a beauty,
it was important, that when she stood at the piano beside
Tom, her beauty should not prove a distraction. So her
clothes don't match. They're too old for her, cancelling out
any hint that she might be trying to flirt with him. Her hands
and eyes are what matter. There is something erotic, or very
sensual at least, about the piano… But despite these
"invisible" clothes, the character becomes steadily and
discreetly more attractive - not in any obvious way. It is just
that she seems more careful with her hair. She wears
steadily prettier clothes with each lesson, as though
unfolding the different aspects of her femininity, different
aspects of the relationship she can offer. Until, the very end
of the movie when Miao-Lin metamorphoses into a selfconfident woman of great beauty.
CAST + CREW
TOM
Romain DURIS
DIRECTOR
SCREENPLAY
ROBERT
Niels ARESTRUP
MIAO-LIN
Linh-Dan PHAM
ORIGINAL SCORE
PHOTOGRAPHY
EDITING
SOUND
ALINE
Aure ATIKA
CHRIS
Emmanuelle DEVOS
FABRICE
Jonathan ZACCAÏ
SAMI
Gilles COHEN
MINSKOV
Anton YAKOVLEV
MINSKOV'S GIRLFRIEND
Mélanie LAURENT
PRODUCTION DESIGN
COSTUMES
MAKE-UP
HAIR
ARTISTIC ADVISER
STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
PRODUCTION MANAGER
PRODUCED BY
INTERNATIONAL SALES
Jacques AUDIARD
Jacques AUDIARD
Tonino BENACQUISTA
based on FINGERS
a film written and directed by James TOBACK
Alexandre DESPLAT
Stéphane FONTAINE
Juliette WELFLING
Brigitte TAILLANDIER
Pascal VILLARD
Cyril HOLTZ
Philippe AMOUROUX
François EMMANUELLI
Virginie MONTEL
Frédérique NEY
Pierre CHAVIALLE
Thomas BIDEGAIN
Jean-Claude LOTHER
Martine CASSINELLI
WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS
CELLULOÏD DREAMS
co-produced by
WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS / SÉDIF / FRANCE 3 CINÉMA
in association with COFIMAGE 15
with the participation of CANAL + / CINÉ CINÉMA
with the support of LA RÉGION ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
and the MEDIA Programme of the EUROPEAN UNION
Cover : Jean-Baptiste Mondino - Credits not contractual - Photos : Jean-Claude Lother