A corporate horror flick filmed in sharp angles and cool metallic tones, "Heartbeat Detector" (2007) oozes atmosphere while its narrative wobbles like a drunken sailor. And it works, more or less.
Company psychologist Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric) is tapped to investigate CEO Mathias Jüst (Michael Lonsdale) whose mood swings are beginning to worry investors and board members alike. Simon takes a rather circuitous route to his unwitting client, stopping along the way to party at nightclubs and hook up with a variety of women and men who apparently find him utterly irresistible. Once Simon starts digging deeper into Jüst´s psyche, he finds himself haunted by the same past that traps the tortured CEO, a past that begins in a Nazi concentration camp and ends with a steel glass headquarters.
It´s tempting to describe the trajectory of the film as a descent into hell, but Simon isn´t exactly starting off in paradise. The utterly amoral world of the modern corporation has all but swallowed him whole, and Simon suffers from indeterminate problems of his own perhaps partly fueled by drugs or a more deep-seated physiological source. Simon is a fully alienated laborer, a capitalist cog in a not so well-greased machine that grinds up souls with the sort of ruthless logic and efficiency that also makes the trains run on schedule in another place and time. As Simon gets dragged inexorably into Jüst´s world, he loses his bearings and his confidence with jarring results.
Amalric is a perfect choice for the lead role. His sallow sunken eyes provide testament to the horror of the present and the past, but there´s not a damned thing he can do about any of it. Even as the quadriplegic Jean-Do in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007) he was more empowered than he is here. It will be interesting to see which Amalric shows up to take on James Bond in "Quantum of Solace."
Director Nicolas Klotz, working from a story by François Emmanuel and a script by Elisabeth Perceval, relates a story that is full of portent but never really leads anywhere which is at least partially the point. Simon explores multiple avenues that provide no real satisfaction or insight into Jüst´s predicament: a classical music quartet, a dead child, a father with a possible criminal past. Klotz also doesn´t seem particularly interested in immersing the audience in the mystery either.
A corporate horror flick filmed in sharp angles and cool metallic tones, "Heartbeat Detector" (2007) oozes atmosphere while its narrative wobbles like a drunken sailor. And it works, more or less.
Company psychologist Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric) is tapped to investigate CEO Mathias Jüst (Michael Lonsdale) whose mood swings are beginning to worry investors and board members alike. Simon takes a rather circuitous route to his unwitting client, stopping along the way to party at nightclubs and hook up with a variety of women and men who apparently find him utterly irresistible. Once Simon starts digging deeper into Jüst´s psyche, he finds himself haunted by the same past that traps the tortured CEO, a past that begins in a Nazi concentration camp and ends with a steel glass headquarters.
It´s tempting to describe the trajectory of the film as a descent into hell, but Simon isn´t exactly starting off in paradise. The utterly amoral world of the modern corporation has all but swallowed him whole, and Simon suffers from indeterminate problems of his own perhaps partly fueled by drugs or a more deep-seated physiological source. Simon is a fully alienated laborer, a capitalist cog in a not so well-greased machine that grinds up souls with the sort of ruthless logic and efficiency that also makes the trains run on schedule in another place and time. As Simon gets dragged inexorably into Jüst´s world, he loses his bearings and his confidence with jarring results.
Amalric is a perfect choice for the lead role. His sallow sunken eyes provide testament to the horror of the present and the past, but there´s not a damned thing he can do about any of it. Even as the quadriplegic Jean-Do in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007) he was more empowered than he is here. It will be interesting to see which Amalric shows up to take on James Bond in "Quantum of Solace."
Director Nicolas Klotz, working from a story by François Emmanuel and a script by Elisabeth Perceval, relates a story that is full of portent but never really leads anywhere which is at least partially the point. Simon explores multiple avenues that provide no real satisfaction or insight into Jüst´s predicament: a classical music quartet, a dead child, a father with a possible criminal past. Klotz also doesn´t seem particularly interested in immersing the audience in the mystery either.
No comments:
Post a Comment