Doodle: Mary Leakey's 100th Birthday
Not that I have ever heard of her.
Ever since I've logged off from work, I couldn't bring myself to tackle all the things that I've wanted to do rather sooner than later. No groceries, no movie yet, not started the book on my bedstand. In fact, I just lay in bed for a while because I couldn't even find motivation to boot the laptop next to me. That's probably because of the exhaustion. I tried to make my apartment somewhat presentable last night and scrubbed the kitchen and the corridor, I went to bed too late again and overslept this morning. Totally one of the advantages of working from home; I was only 20 minutes late that way even though I was still fast asleep when I was already 15 minutes late. ;0) I also didn't lie down and watch shows or movies during my lunch break because I expected the heating guy, and just as I had imagined, he arrived sooner than announced and left right when I had to get back to work. But I'm lying in bed now with a cup of tea and some cake that I've already inhaled.
Anyway, before I move to the living room to watch some movie after all, here are a few words about the movie I watched last night. And during yesterday's lunch break, and before I went to sleep the night before. Because I think this one is worth remembering, and I remember movies better when I comment on them, and they seem so superior to other movies afterwards. ;0)
Heartbeats. Or Les Amours Imaginaires, as the original title would be. It's a French-Canadían movie. I had wanted to watch it because I was interested in the story and because the IMDb rating was good. I know, I should have recognized the guy pictured on the poster (Xavier Dolan) and remembered his incredibly versatile talent, but I didn't. I didn't recognize him at all even though it wasn't that long ago that I watched I Killed My Mother. Funnily enough, I figured I knew the other guy and only discovered afterwards that he also appeared in I Killed My Mother. Which, FYI, was Xavier Dolan's debut as a director. When I say incredibly versatile talent, I mean that he was the writer, director, producer, lead actor, editor and costume designer for Heartbeats. At the age of 21. Or probably 20, depending on when this was filmed. And he did nearly the same for I Killed My Mother a year before.
But anyway, I should actually talk about the movie. There are two friends, Francis and Marie, who seem to be pretty close and to know each other almost inside out. Or maybe that's just what they appeared to be to me, something like BFFs. Then they meet Nicolas, and it's instantly clear that both are drawn to him. They never talk to each other about it, but at the same time it's obvious how they eye the other's attempts of making themselves more interesting to Nicolas. There's an underlying rivalry that only becomes evident to Nicolas when Francis and Marie literally fight each other in the street. It struck me towards the end of the movie how Nicolas was in fact not (?) consciously playing with their feelings as I had thought throughout (my impression had been that he was into both of them and simply enjoyed the whole love triangle situation), he was actually surprised when he found out that both had fallen in love with him. Or rather by the fact that each of them had fallen in love with him, as he apparently had no such interest in either of them. There's of course still a possibility that he did notice that they loved him and just didn't want anything to change and most definitely wasn't interested in a serious relationship, and that this was the reason for his reaction once he was told to his face. But whatever.
I thought the cast's portrayals were great, what with chain smoking Marie with her old-fashioned dresses and stylish Francis who instantly made me think of Olly Murs with his striped shirts (why do I make this association???) and head-in-the-clouds Nicolas who seems so amazing at first and turns rather dull towards the end. Have a look at all three here and here. I especially loved all the scenes that consisted of close-up, slow-motion sequences set to music (there were quite a lot of them). You don't always need dialogs, sometimes the right song choice with the right images can do wonders. It's a rec! ;0) I didn't get the interview scenes, or therapy or whatever that was. I didn't completely miss their point, I hope, but overall they rather confused me. Who were those people? In what way did they have to do with this story?
