Hearts (film)

For the second time in his career, Alain Rene turns to the works of Alan Eyckborn as a source material (the first experience was the adaptation of the play Smoke / No Smoke ). Leaving the original structure unchanged, he transfers the surroundings of the film from provincial England to the 13th district of Paris .

The film contains more than fifty episodes, in each of which, as a rule, two characters participate - occasionally three or one. All scenes are connected to each other by video transitions in the form of falling snow - a technique characteristic of Rene from the time of his “ Love to Death ”.

The actors involved in the film are familiar to Renee ( Arditi , Azem , Dussolier , Wilson ), long-standing technical partners and specialists helped, although he worked with cameraman Eric Gaultier for the first time.

The fictional TV program "Songs Changed My Life" , which are mentioned in the film, was directed by Bruno Podalide.

In modern Paris, the six characters in the film confront their spiritual loneliness, while their lives are intertwined.

Dan , in the recent past, a military man who was dismissed from the army for some offense, spends almost his time in the hotel bar, telling his sorrows to the bartender Lionel , who is brought home by a sick father who does not get out of bed ^[2] . Dan’s relationship with Nicole is going through hard times, and following Lionel’s advice, he places an ad in a dating newspaper that Gael responds to, a lonely young woman living with her older brother Thierry .

Thierry, a real estate agent, is trying to find a new apartment for Dana and Nicole. Charlotte also works in the same real estate agency. She is also lonely, obsessed with religion, finding inspiration in religious TV programs that Thierry promotes. Taking one of the tapes from the recording of this TV show, at the end of a boring recording for him, he is surprised to find a snippet of a video of an incendiary erotic dance of a woman similar to Charlotte (the dancer’s face is not visible in the frame). Seeing the clip as a veiled hint, Thierry tries to pester Charlotte, but gets a crushing rebuff.

In her free time, Charlotte moonlights as a nurse, watching Lionel’s father bedridden when he goes to his bar to do his job. The old man is unbearable. Nurses, as a rule, leave him on the first day, not sustaining his indomitable temper. But Lionel still does not want to send him to a nursing home. After several visits in an atmosphere of constant stress, Charlotte decides to reassure her bad grandfather. To do this, she dressed up in leather lingerie, performs a striptease for him, after which she returns to her usual pious behavior. Returning Lionel finds his father sleeping with a blissful smile on his lips. And the next day he is hospitalized.

Gael, arriving at the wrong time for another date to Dan at the hotel bar, finds him sitting at a table with Nicole. Interpreting this as a betrayal, she runs away in tears. Although at that moment, Dan and Nicole came to the conclusion that they should finally part.

By the end of the film, all his characters are even more lonely than at the beginning.

• Director - Alain Rene
• Screenwriter - Jean-Michel Ribe
• Producer - Bruno Peseri
• Executive Producer - Julie Salvador
• Editor - Evreux de Louse
• Composer - Mark Snow
• Operator - Eric Gauthier

Prime Dates

Dates are given in accordance with IMDb ^[3] .

Reaction

After the appearance on the screen, “Hearts” received an extremely warm welcome from the French press, the reaction of the public was more moderate, although the film also gathered a good box office ^[4] . British and American criticism was also supportive of the picture, although doubts were expressed about the significance of this work ^[5] . Commentators' comments ranged from “ disappointing ^[6] ” and “ inconsequential ^[7] ” to “ sophisticated comedy / drama ^[8] ” and “a masterpiece by any standards ^[9] ”.

One of the aspects noted by Anglo-American critics was deliberate theatricality in the style of filming: “The film was completely shot in the scenery emphasizing its stage design - the apparent absence of ceilings when filming from above, the predominance of bright colors in pastel colors (pink, orange, white), frequent presence in frame in the foreground of objects hiding part of what is happening on the screen: etched or frosted glass, bead curtains, art forging, translucent bedspreads and so on ” ^[6] . “... An elegant find that creates an excellent and constant atmosphere - this is Paris, where the snow is falling all the time quietly, even (in one moment) in enclosed spaces - it gives the characters numerous attempts to break the deadlock of their lives demonstrative magic of a fairy tale” ^[10] .

The mise-en-scenes also inspires the themes of loneliness and separation: “Rene is much more interested in barriers that can divide us - be it the inner wall, mistakenly bisecting the room in the first apartment, visited by Nicole, or the bead curtain that overlaps the Lionel bar in two, a glass partition, standing in the office between Charlotte and Thierry - thematic confrontations between heaven and hell, men and women, temptations and piety ” ^[11] . “All the characters in the film are looking for love and communication. They are very lonely, although not one is inclined to isolation. They only hint at their own essence and sensuality. They live in a kind of emotional and social stain ... ” ^[12] .

In addition, the quality of the action was noted: “An excellent stage and actors are one of the main reasons that Rene’s work so easily coexists with theatrical and cinematic” ^[6] .

The list of awards and nominations is given in accordance with the data of IMDb ^[13] .

Rewards

Nominations

• Hearts on allmovie  
• Hearts on Rotten Tomatoes  
• Review of the film on the site film.ru
• Review of the film on the site afisha.ru
• Andrey Plakhov . Interview with the director on the eve of the premiere at the Moscow Film Festival (English) . Kommersant (June 20, 2007). Date of treatment January 17, 2010. Archived April 15, 2012.