Reviewed by Michael Edwards
Stars Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale, Edith Scob,
Lou Castel, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Dréville,
Laetitia Spigarelli, Nicolas Maury, Rémy Carpentier
Written by François Emmanuel & Elisabeth Perceval
Certification UK 12A
Runtime 143 minutes
Directed by Nicolas Klotz
Heartbeat Detector weighs in at an impressive 143 minutes, and you really feel every second of it. A powerful but immensely dense and uncomfortable look at humanity, this is not a film for your average cinemagoer — a fact cemented by the proclamation that director Klotz and writer Perceval "are developing a mode of written and filmic expression together that challenges both cinematographic form and contemporary upheavals". Indeed.
The premise is that a struggling German company has been streamlining its French branch to become profitable again, but this seems to have taken its toll on the company CEO (Lonsdale). Naturally the company psychologist (Amalric), who also played a large part in the streamlining process, is called in to investigate. As his work proceeds, we end up peeling back layer after layer after layer of intrigue, self-awareness and social interaction. Sounds complicated? It is. Plotlines follow individual character traumas (both past and present), family histories (including Nazi collaboration and other nasty home truths), the morality of the corporate world and the very social and emotional interaction that binds us all together. I can't emphasise enough how much hard work this movie is.
Nonetheless, as I was hauled through the murky depths of humanity for these two hours I found my eyes glued to the screen. My backside was numb, my heart was bleeding and I felt a little dizzy, but I couldn't stop watching this enthralling display of a convoluted and distorted reality that it seems we are all a part of in contemporary society. Aside from the intricacies of the subject matter, Heartbeat Detector has plenty of other noteworthy aspects. The acting, for one, is superb. Amalric puts in an entirely believable and bludgeoningly honest performance as increasingly perturbed psychologist Simon, and Michael Lonsdale vacillates between corporate stoicism and all-too-human vulnerability with frightening ease. What's more the murky cinematography and artful camerawork give this film a viscerality vital to keeping the audience rapt as the filmmakers bombard them with their theories of life.
A difficult film, a painful film and a very tiring film. But ultimately Heartbeat Detector is a sharp piece of social critique that hurls out themes and ideas that you could literally spend months poring over. I came out feeling dizzy, but after a week or so I was aching to go back for more.