It has become customary for tired Hollywood producers to look for European art house successes which can be remade in a more commercial style. Think of Cameron Crows remake of Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) as Vanilla Sky or Mike Nichols remake of Cage Aux Folles. The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a rare case of the reverse happening. After the success of Read My Lips, French director Jaques Audiard turned to James Tobaks 1978 Harvey Keitel vehicle Fingers, and remade it as an altogether more stylish and powerful film. Tobaks film, a favourite of Godard and Tarranino, is often through of as some sort of lost masterpiece and has been favourably compared to Taxi Driver. On revisiting it, I found it over plotted and over long, but an interesting and overlooked piece of cinema history all the same. <br /><br />The Beat that My Heart Skipped focuses on Thomas Seyr (a top notch performance from Romain Duris), who has followed in his fathers footsteps and gone into business at the sleazy end of the property development market. He and his colleagues daily routine involves planting rats and setting fire to buildings to drive tenants out. Sometimes they resort even more direct aggression and violence in order to get their way. A chance meeting with his long dead mothers piano teacher brings new meaning to his life..<br /><br />Essentially it's a film about the age old Oedipus concept, as Thomas flits between the violent influence of his father and the artistic heritage of his mother. As he becomes more engrossed with his piano practice, so he is drawn away from the wheeler dealing lifestyle of his father and business partners. Soon he is dancing to a different beat. But is his piano playing good enough to offer him an escape route? Shades of Al Pachinos desire to concentrate on legitimate business in the Godfather perhaps, also parallels with Billy Elliot as Thomas goes against the grain of his contemporaries. <br /><br />After being promised an audition, Thomas starts visiting a young Vietnamese tutor, Miao Lin, who has recently arrived in Paris on a scholarship. Miao Lin cannot speak French and the strained communication between them parallels Thomas' struggle with his father and his own sense of identity. Audaird wisely chooses not to subtitle Maio Lins Vietnamese dialogue to further illustrate the frustration that Thomas feels. <br /><br />Good use is made of music throughout the film, periodically switching from techno to classical to illustrate the dichotomy of Thomas' world. Perhaps the most telling scene has Thomas, hands still bruised from "business" dealings, tapping out classical piano chords on a bar, while electronic music blares out in the background and his thuggish partners discuss how they are going to drive their next deal home. <br /><br />Audaird is quickly is making a name for himself for turning out well crafted, intelligent thrillers. From Tobaks source material he has retained the protagonists internal struggle with the self, toned down his misogynistic tendencies, lost a subplot or two and given us a more satisfying ending. Now the only question left is: who is the best one handed piano player, Keitel or Duris?!!!<br /><br />Patrick Bliss.