Dolan, left, Schneider, right.
When Michael Kowalinski interviewed Xavier Dolan for us earlier this year, the 21 year old French Canadian director remarked, ‘When people play hard to get it turns me on.’ Dolan might just as easily have been describing the theme of his second film Heartbeats, which screens at the Toronto International Film Festival today. The film tells the story of two best friends, a young gay man (played by Dolan) and his best girlfriend (Monia Chokri) who meet a drop dead gorgeous guy (Niels Schneider) with ambiguous sexuality, and quickly become consumed in their efforts to woo him, at the cost of their friendship. Wisely realizing that his second film would inevitably be compared to his award-winning debut I Killed My Mother, Dolan created a film that could hardly be compared to it. Bearing the stylistic influence of directors like Wong Kar-wai and Pedro Almodovar, Heartbeats seems almost like the work of a different filmmaker. The most thrilling moment occurs midway through the film in an impeccably edited sequence when the two friends watch their obsession dancing while The Knife’s ‘Pass This On,’ plays on the soundtrack. A simple love-triangle story at it’s core, the energy and style that Dolan brings to the film as director, producer, and editor makes Hearbeats both unique and effective. The film screens at 6:15PM today, while an exclusive engagement begins Thursday, September 23rd.
Text C/O Butt.
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