Heartbeat Detector (2008)

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Heartbeat Detector (2008); Nicolas Klotz
Topic Started: Jan 19 2009, 10:31 PM (628 Views)
Darren H	Jan 19 2009, 10:31 PM Post #1
Member Posts: 388 Group: Members Member #7 Joined: April 7, 2008	I've posted the first of what I hope will be several entries on Heartbeat Detector at Long Pauses. I'm not sure if this first entry will be of much use to others, but writing it helped me begin to think through what I now believe, after a second viewing, to be one hell of a film.



Michael S	Jan 23 2009, 01:47 AM Post #2
Member Posts: 182 Group: Members Member #14 Joined: April 12, 2008	Darren, your post on Heartbeat Detector has inspired me to push the film to the top of my Netflix queue. I hope I'll have time to get to it soon. While it's probably not entirely a parallel, your observations about the shift from objective to subjective remind of Assayas' visual approach in Clean, in which he continually shifts from wide shots to close-ups to suggest the change in perspective that Maggie Cheung needs in order to manage her life more carefully, to see things more broadly ... and then in the closing shot, as she's begun to change, he has her, momentarily, in close-up, until, in wide-shot, she runs outside and can be seen against the San Francisco skyline. I'm not familiar with Klotz's work, and I've not seen Heartbeat Detector yet, but I can say I really appreciate it when a filmmaker has a real symbiotic connection between content and visual form. I'm also intrigued by your comparison of Klot's musical sequences to Denis'. If I recall correctly (it's been a while since I've last seen it), L'Intrus in particular had some compelling musical sequences.



kenmorefield	Jan 23 2009, 08:03 AM Post #3
Squire of Cinema Posts: 1,504 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 6, 2008	It's also currently available using Netflix's "Play it Now" feature.
	"I think you want me too much to explain what I did." --Robert Bresson


Darren H	Jan 23 2009, 12:25 PM Post #4
Member Posts: 388 Group: Members Member #7 Joined: April 7, 2008	Michael, my first post is a long ramble all intended to get to a single point -- that even in the mise-en-scene of a run-of-the-mill conversation between two characters, Klotz is unusually conscious of his actors' body. And that's the aspect of the film that reminds me of Denis. In many respects their styles are very different. Klotz is more static and cold (I'm planning to watch it again tonight, but I wonder if Haneke is a useful point of comparison). But, like Denis, he's also particularly interested in the aesthetic experience of observing bodies. L'Intrus is a good example, but Beau Travail and Vers Mathilde are even better. The music sequences in Heartbeat Detector at first seem to be wildly out of place -- they're these kinetic moments in a static film world. But then on a second viewing you see other moments of "dance" -- the way Almaric moves with and embraces the two women in his life; the choreography of movement in hallways and chairs.



Andrew	Jan 23 2009, 12:54 PM Post #5
Member Posts: 65 Group: Members Member #12 Joined: April 10, 2008	Your note about Klotz's aesthetic interest in observing bodies is an excellent one. For me, Amalric's pale, dead fish appearance - such a contrast with his vivacity in 'Kings and Queen' - through much of the film was striking, and in synch with his sterile, deathly environs. I'm hoping to watch this film again in the next several days.



Michael S	Jan 23 2009, 02:09 PM Post #6
Member Posts: 182 Group: Members Member #14 Joined: April 12, 2008	Darren H Jan 23 2009, 12:25 PM that even in the mise-en-scene of a run-of-the-mill conversation between two characters, Klotz is unusually conscious of his actors' body. And that's the aspect of the film that reminds me of Denis. Ah, very interesting point, Darren, and in that sense I can definitely see a connection with Denis -- and how the observation of bodies (and the emphasis on the aesthetic experience of this) adds another dimension both to the properties of the film itself and to the experience of the viewer. I'm also intrigued by your characterization of Klotz's style being somewhat static and cold, and I'm curious to see if my experience with the film will be similar -- Denis is certainly a rigorous formalist, and yet I've always thought of her work as both dynamic and very affecting. I'm so curious now I wish I had the film lying around to watch this weekend. I might even try that Play It Now feature -- thanks for the tip, Ken. I'd like to see it on a larger screen so might wait, but my curiosity might get the best of me.



Darren H	Jan 23 2009, 03:14 PM Post #7
Member Posts: 388 Group: Members Member #7 Joined: April 7, 2008	Quote: Denis is certainly a rigorous formalist, and yet I've always thought of her work as both dynamic and very affecting. Definitely. And she's also, for lack of a better word, sensual -- kind of like another of your favorites, Martel. Heartbeat Detector is a little more distant or, maybe, intellectual. Here's a provocative comparison to shoot down . . . Klotz is to Ceylan as Denis is to Tsai. Both Ceylan and Tsai are often described as heirs to Antonioni's alienation, but I've always found Tsai to be much more warm and human. That analogy is as close as I can come right now to explaining how I see similarities between Denis and Klotz -- shared aesthetic preoccupations filtered through very different lenses.



Michael S	Jan 23 2009, 04:58 PM Post #8
Member Posts: 182 Group: Members Member #14 Joined: April 12, 2008	Darren H Jan 23 2009, 03:14 PM Here's a provocative comparison to shoot down . . . Klotz is to Ceylan as Denis is to Tsai. Both Ceylan and Tsai are often described as heirs to Antonioni's alienation, but I've always found Tsai to be much more warm and human. You know, that's a pretty apt comparison. As much as I like some of Ceylan's work, it doesn't bear the same kind of humanity I too find in some of Tsai's films, which seem to have a much more direct empathy to them. And then there's that distinction (or battle) you note between the intellectual and the sensual. Martel's films are, literally, sensual -- physical bodies, climate, ambient sounds, natural light, and so on, and I find the same kind of tangible sensuality in Denis' work too. I don't think these distinctions render a more intellectual or "colder" film less worthwhile or cinematically important necessarily; instead, they tend to highlight the validity of different approaches (even if, in the end, I almost always side with the warmer, more humane films).



pwaldron	Jan 25 2009, 03:36 PM Post #9
Member Posts: 214 Group: Members Member #6 Joined: April 6, 2008	I watched Heartbeat Detector on Netflix the other night, and while the film gave me much food for thought, I don't think I share Darren's enthusiasm for it. Like someone said about The Reader on another thread, Heartbeat too seems to be two ill-fitting movies put together--the first, a more experimental exploration of Simon's discomfort with being a psychological profiler in order to help his company target "units" for downsizing, and the second, a more traditional "he said/he said" potboiler about the Holocaust's continuing effect on Europeans. Simon obviously finds parallels between what he has enabled and what Nazi "efficiency experts" carried out, so the two halves of the film connect plotwise. But the loud music and dance-filled early scenes never meshed for me with the long, quiet, almost stubbornly static shots of the second half. Ultimately, I guess I felt that the attempt to "update" Holocaust discussion with an analogy from the corporate world was not very successful. Sadly, by the time the final two speeches came (the fourth quartet member's and the Simon's over black screen), I was less moved by their pathos than exasperated by their length. And those words should have been moving. I did, however, enjoy Darren's formalist discussion of the film at Long Pauses. I know nothing about Denis's films and cannot speak to that comparison, but I, too, noticed the placement of bodies in proximity to one another at several points. As someone who has no formal instruction in film, I tend to relate such observations by default to plot and characterization. My take on Rose and J�st intentionally positioning themselves within Simon's personal space was that these are two powerful and experienced executives, both trying to win Simon to their point of view. They would certainly know that adopting such poses would place them in a psychological position of authority and influence and improve their chances of winning Simon to their side. The fact that, as a psychologist Simon would certainly know this as well, merely adds another layer. Whether those decisions were made by the director or called for in the script, they were very deft. I look forward to your continuing analysis, Darren. BTW, what would have been wrong with a literal translation of the French title "The Human Question?" "Heartbeat Detector," though it does have some relevance for the film, sounds too much like a bad Greg Kinnear or Robin Williams movie.
	Nick Charles: "I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune." Nora Charles: "I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids." Nick: "It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."


kenmorefield	Jan 25 2009, 04:27 PM Post #10
Squire of Cinema Posts: 1,504 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 6, 2008	I too have been spending parts of my weekend watching this on Netflix. Only one comment at the moment. I'm struck by the extent to which, especially early in the film, characters attempt to co-opt the language of other disciplines in order to talk about their job, mission, company, etc. We get the business people using psychology to talk about productivity, the psychologist using metaphors of the military, music described as a "virus," a woman who is "naked" when she "sings," etc. This is probably an overly reductive way of speaking about Darren's core question (the meaning of the music sequences), but I found myself thinking about Mike's introduction to F&SiMoWC and his contention that the directors are sort of bound together in a search for wholeness, a search that rejects some false dichotomies, including the material and the spiritual. Perhaps on some level the current preoccupation with dancing (in this particular film or others) might be looked at as either a corrective to or haven from totalizing world-views (whether religious, philosophical, or psuedo-scientific). The human cannot be reduced to that which is expressed in any one discipline, or there is something that remains ineffable within each. Dance is both the expression of that thing and evidence of it. There may not be a moral equivalence in the sorts of psychological pigeon-holing (and therefore, reducing) that the psychologist does and the political pigeon-holing the Nazis did, but both seem to be increasingly looked at as products of the same post-Enlightenment materialism that reduces the human to the categorical and empirical. By that I don't mean, Expelled-like that Voltaire or Hegel or Darwin is responsible for the Holocaust. But surely the Holocaust isn't merely an historical anomaly, the causes of which find expression nowhere else but in Nazi Germany, even if we claim (or accede to the claim) that there is something unique about that particular historical expression of the broader zeitgeist. (Hey, I used the word "zeitgeist"; where's Groucho Marx with my bonus money?)
	"I think you want me too much to explain what I did." --Robert Bresson


kenmorefield	Jan 25 2009, 04:29 PM Post #11
Squire of Cinema Posts: 1,504 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 6, 2008	Link to thread on Holocaust films.
	"I think you want me too much to explain what I did." --Robert Bresson


kenmorefield	Jan 25 2009, 09:40 PM Post #12
Squire of Cinema Posts: 1,504 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 6, 2008	As a postscript to my last comment, I doubt I'm the only one who has mentioned this, but I wonder if the German name "Just" has the same etymology or connotation that it does in English. I know "Thedor" (his father's name) is from the Greek meaning "gift of God" (mostly because Gregory Maguire plays on that irony in Wicked), so Just's father was literally named "God's Gift of Justice" or something like that.
	"I think you want me too much to explain what I did." --Robert Bresson


Darren H	Jan 26 2009, 08:43 AM Post #13
Member Posts: 388 Group: Members Member #7 Joined: April 7, 2008	Quote: Heartbeat too seems to be two ill-fitting movies put together I watched the film again last night, but I did it in about half the time. I fast-forwarded through nearly all of the conversations and, instead, just concentrated on the other stuff -- the musical sequences, the insert shots of the factory, the magic tricks, the nightmare, the moments with Louisa, and on and on. The film was still nearly 80 minutes long. Peter, I don't yet have a good, simple response to the "two films in one" critique of Heartbeat Detector, but the main reason I'm putting some extra effort into this film is because I've watched a lot of similarly ambitious movies over the past few years, most of which really don't work, and this one -- to my tastes, at least -- really does. I'm curious to understand the difference. For what it's worth, I've now watched it three times, and it seems more and more coherent with each viewing. Quote: I wonder if the German name "Just" has the same etymology or connotation that it does in English. I don't have the DVD with me, so I can't transcribe their exact conversation, but this comes up in the final exchange between Simon and Arie Neumann.



kenmorefield	Jan 26 2009, 08:58 AM Post #14
Squire of Cinema Posts: 1,504 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 6, 2008	Regarding language: My French is laughably small. Minuscule, actually. That being said, I did notice 2-3 times where I questioned the subtitling. The only one that I remember specifically was that Neuman says "final solution" in his speech and the subtitles render it "ultimate solution," which struck me as odd given the context. Also, the final voice over contains a mix of French and German, I think. (But I would be interested in someone with a better grasp of the language listening to the film and letting me know if this was the case throughout or just in that speech.) IMDB says the film is in French, and the final speech sounds mostly French. But the word that is translated "Pieces" is actually the German word "stucke." I'm pretty sure the word that is translated "shit" is not "mierde," either. I don't really know enough about the language to say whether this is just a cultural thing (like Spanglish in Texas, given the film is about German company with subsidiary in France) or whether it has some symbolic value. I suspect the latter given the film's preoccupation with language in its latter parts.
	"I think you want me too much to explain what I did." --Robert Bresson


Darren H	Jan 26 2009, 09:28 AM Post #15
Member Posts: 388 Group: Members Member #7 Joined: April 7, 2008	Simon definitely slips into German in the final v.o., and, if I'm recalling correctly, he uses it at other points in the film, too. Simon tells Rose during their first conversation that he is Austrian and has only moved to Paris for the job.

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