Mubi Monday: Beating Hearts (2024)

Based on a 1997 novel by Irish writer Neville Thompson, "Jackie Loves Johnser OK?", Beating Hearts is a very traditional tale of two potential lovers heading on two very different paths through life. It's so traditional that I was surprised to see so many names credited in the writing department, including director Gilles Lellouche, but maybe that was due to people helping refine the material and ensure it would all translate well enough to France, where it's set.

Things revolve around the pairing of Jackie (young version played by Mallory Wanecque, older version played by Adéle Exarchopoulos) and Clotaire (young version played by Malik Frikah, older version played by François Civil). Jackie is headstrong and smart, but generally also keeping out of trouble as she figures out what she wants to do with her life. Clotaire spends his time involved in petty crime with his friends, and things escalate to more serious robberies, resulting in a death that he is arrested and imprisoned for (despite not being the one responsible). The passing of time doesn't dull the strength of feeling that Jackie and Clotaire have for one another, but it seems that circumstances are conspiring to keep them apart. 

There are French crime thrillers that are better than this, and grittier. There are many love stories out there without the violence that this has. You have plenty to choose from. But Beating Hearts is highly watchable thanks to the style (it all looks great, and there's a vibrant soundtrack that even makes use of some John Carpenter tracks from the Escape From New York score), the structure, and the performances of the leads, both young and old. Lellouche does well with the material, but they give themselves a major boost by casting so well.

I've said recently that Exarchopoulos is one of those people I will watch in anything. That hasn't changed. She's as riveting here as she usually is, and there's a nice consistency as her performance follows on from the great turn from Wanecque. On the other hand, Civil, while he does well, has to be more sombre and worn down than the past version of himself, so charmingly portrayed by Frikah. Every one of the four leads manages to sketch an entire idea of their life lived up to that point, and the bond between Jackie and Clotaire becomes the one defining constant. Vincent Lacoste is fine as Jeffrey, a man who also ends up lovestruck by Jackie, and who benefits from being present when Clotaire cannot, and Alain Chabat is solid as Jackie's considerate and loving father.

Despite some predictability, Beating Hearts somehow manages to be both expected and unexpected. It has the occasional bursts of violence, it has the character who is only truly seen by a loved one, and there are certain debts to be paid. It also has a surprising sweetness through a number of scenes, and a genuine sense of how romance and love language can be very different for some, but no less genuine or serious. The hefty 166-minute runtime doesn't drag, and it actually feels right to give these characters the time and space to get to where we want them to go. I highly recommend this one, even if you think it's something we've already seen a hundred times over in the past few decades.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Elles (2011)

Juliette Binoche stars here as Anne, a journalist writing for Elle magazine. Her latest assignment is all about university students who earn themselves extra money by working as prostitutes. As she has more conversations with Charlotte (Anaís Demoustier) and Alicja (Joanna Kulig), she starts to find herself more and more preoccupied with thoughts of sex, and how it impacts the lives of these young women, for better or for worse.

Directed by Małgorzata Szumowska, who also co-wrote the script with Tine Byrckel, Elles has been lazily described as a modern riff on Belle de Jour. While there are certainly similarities here, especially with the way that the main character starts to slip further into moments of fantasy during her day to day life, this is a film framed to feel much more relevant today than the Bunuel classic (and Belle de Jour IS a classic). There's ambiguity, there is a good and bad side shown to being so open to differing dynamics in sexual situations, but the undercurrent feels more positive, a reminder to women that wanting sex, using it for your own gain, isn't anything to be ashamed of, no matter what hypocrites have to say about it.

Szumowska is someone I have not encountered before, yet a very brief look over her filmography shows a selection of titles and synopses that mark her out as someone creating consistently smart and interesting fare. I doubt this will be the last time I review one of her films, especially as I now intend to seek out her other works ASAP (ASAP for me, however, always means . . . at some point within the next decade).

Binoche does good work in the main role, portraying a character who could easily have remained less interesting than the others she becomes fascinated by. The fact that she becomes more fleshed out and interesting as she examines herself in the reflection of her interview subjects is thanks to both the script and the performance from Binoche. The same can be said of her family members (mainly her husband, played by Louis-do de Lencquesaing, and elder son, played by François Civil), with those characters moved to the foreground as Demoustier and Kulig, a couple of key scenes aside, are gradually moved back. The focus of the film slowly, but surely, turns to show what Binoche does with her new insights, and how she starts to consider living her life by a new set of standards.

Elles doesn't do anything new, it won't change the way you view things, but it's a well-made reminder of the minefields we all navigate in our own minds when it comes to something that should always be pleasurable and a lot less complicated: sex.

7/10

You can pick up the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.