Heartbeats

Part gleaming farce, part-tough-minded exploration of the inherent insanity of love and desire, HEARTBEATS centers on two close friends: Francis (Xavier Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri). At a dinner party one evening they meet Nicolas (Niels Schneider), a striking young man from the country who has just recently arrived in town. His boyish charm and classical good looks create an irresistible mystique that neither of the two friends can shake.

The threesome begins to spend more and more time together. But the more intimate they get, the more remote and unattainable Nico becomes, sending Francis and Marie’s comic obsession into overdrive.

And as their hunger for Nicolas’ affections grow, the more their once cast-iron friendship begins to crack and shift to rivalry.

Xavier Dolan’s directorial follow-up to the acclaimed I KILLED MY MOTHER (in which he also starred alongside Niels Schneider), HEARTBEATS is a study of the descent into poetically passionate love and the complexities of young human emotions. HEARTBEATS premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and was the recipient of the Youth Prize.

“The new movie confirms Mr. Dolan as a wildly talented, carelessly extravagant filmmaker nakedly in thrall to idols like Wong Kar-wai, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodóvar.” (Stephen Holden, New York Times)

“The film couples high comedy with spiritual solitude. That's not just a slo-mo stunt, it's a cockeyed triumph.” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall St. Journal)