De battre mon coeur s’est arreté/The beat my heart skipped
A French film based on an American movie of the 70’s with Harvey Keitel, Tom (Romain Duris) is a real estate agent cum repo man, who goes in with his heavies to clear out or rough up properties his father wants to buy up cheap. He also has the unfulfilled ambition to be a concert pianist like his dead mother, a quest he gave up ten years before. In this tight and gripping film we follow Tom as he reaches a crisis point with the struggle between these two aspects of his life, being the dutiful son and following his dream. One side of the film features the underworld, mafia, shady deals and petty violence and the other piano coaching at the hands of a newly arrived Chinese immigrant, 
auditions and the occasional romantic meeting with the wife of a colleague. All this is beautifully coordinated by director Jacques Audiard who is aided immensely by a tremendous performance by Romain Duris. Niels Arestrup as the father also does well and it is great to see Emmanuelle Devos
in a cameo role. –photography and music are also excellent making for a very good film all round.
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