Today our series begins with the best films I have discovered so far in our video store and which are being rented by you. Our first big year was 2005, and you can imagine that there were long queues at two counters. At that time, netflix still sent DVDs by mail and we ran a small store in Friedrichshain. When I saw Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped for the first time, I was speechless with enthusiasm! Everyone should see it too; I recommended this modern Film Noir! At the heart of the film; a character study: Thomas is a modern real estate agent. We see him with a sack full of rats. He exposes them in the building he wants to buy cheaply. With the hacking, he kicks in a window. He learned the business from his father Robert, a fat drunkard who has a passive aggressive influence on Thomas. His mother, who exerted a better influence than concert pianist, is dead. Once upon a time Thomas played the piano seriously. Before he exposed rats. Then he meets his mother's former impresario by chance. He recognizes Thomas, tells him that he used to be good. He suggests that Thomas should play for him. Thomas is touched and torn apart inside. He works in a hateful job and despises himself for it. But Thomas hesitates to disappoint his father. He loves classical music. But it is questionable whether he will ever regain the talent he once had. Thomas, played by Romain Duris, despises himself - which we can see in his nervous energy. He is frustrated and this anger can come through at any time while practicing the piano. He hires Miao-Lin (Linh-Dan Pham), a Chinese pianist who does not speak a word of French. They can only communicate through music. Like his father, she forces him to play certain passages over and over again. Somehow Thomas' life depends on such authority figures. At some point, Thomas is ready. But is it enough for a professional audition? And what about his teacher? Are there feelings between them or is that more of a mystery? Thomas is having an affair with his best friend's wife. And he calls the new young girlfriend of his father Chris (Emmanuelle Devos) a whore. Robert proudly shows her off to him to prove that he can still do it with women! What influence does he actually have on Thomas? Why does his son do the dirty work? Finally Robert falls for a deal. His "business partner", a Russian named Minskov (Anton Yakovlev), cheats on Robert. Thomas advises him to write off the loss. But Robert sets up some tests for his son... But most of all, it's probably because Thomas can't play sublime classical music, because he's constantly roaming the seedy shoals of life. Jacques Audiard, not only for me the greatest French director in ages, shows this in a Film Noir, just as we all wanted it to be! The story of a man who desperately reaches for his dying ideals. You're lucky that we're not writing 2005 anymore, because at that time The Beat That My Heart Skipped was awarded almost continuously. Now it goes...
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