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Heartbeat Detector [DVD] [2007]

DVD ~ Mathieu Amalric

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

Actors: Mathieu Amalric, Michael Londsdale
Directors: Nicolas Klotz
Format: PAL
Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 1
Classification: 12
Studio: Trinity Films
DVD Release Date: 22 Sep 2008
Run Time: 135 minutes

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

ASIN: B001CBWB7G
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,962 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Product Description
Heartbeat Detector is an immersive corporate thriller in which Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell And The Butterfly) plays Simon Kessler, an in-house corporate psychologist, who is asked to investigate the erratic behaviour of the company CEO (Michael Lonsdale). His investigations take him under the skin of his company, and its neutral corporate language, to dark, Caché-style transgressions.

Synopsis
This corporate thriller from France follows company psychologist Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric - THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, QUANTUM OF SOLACE) who is assigned with investigating a CEO (Michael Lonsdale – MOONRAKER, THE DAY OF TEH JACKAL) who executives fear is growing mentally unstable. While Kessler tries to get close to his subject, the CEO turns the tables on his interlocutor, revealing devastating company secrets that throw Kessler's life into turmoil. The mysteries only deepen as murder and blackmail are thrown into this dark mix.

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3 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbeat Detector, 18 Aug 2008

By	Jamie "Jamie" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This film is riveting and utterly engrossing. Upcoming Bond baddie Matthieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) gets a film to himself here - already a reason to watch - and the film that he gets is a chilling, provocative look at corporate life that will make you think twice about putting on your suit to go into the office again. The way that Nazi Germany creeps into the picture is terrifying. A staggering piece of cinema.

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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Earnest moral judgments don't make up for a lack of dramatic tension. But Michael Lonsdale is fine, 25 Jul 2008

By	C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Here's a movie with a serious theme, undone by the earnestness of the director and writer. We know how serious the theme is because it involves Nazi death camps, and not just as a reminder of what humans are capable of, but as an odd metaphor for humanity's current business conditions.

"Did you know," says one character, "we don't have poor people anymore? Only people on modest incomes. We no longer talk of "issues," such as social issues, but "problems" that our specialists split up into a series of technical details. For each one, they'll find the optimum solution."

That may or may not be true, depending on one's own social enthusiasms, but Nicolas Klotz, the director, and Elisabeth Perceval, the screenwriter, seem to be making the case that corporate downsizing is the moral equivalent of Nazi extermination actions. The parallel is not only grotesquely naive, but thick-headedly trivializes some of humanity's worst atrocities. One has to admire, and I mean this seriously, their earnestness, but their earnestness leads them into the fatal flaw of some artists: That their passion for social justice equates as artistic talent.

The Human Question (the English title, Heartbeat Detector, is confusing) gives us a good start. A corporate psychologist at SCFarb, a giant German company with a major Parisian subsidiary, is called upon by Karl Rose, the firm's deputy manager, to secretly report on the mental health of SCFarb's head, Mathias Just (Michael Lonsdale). Our man, Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric), is told that Just has been behaving erratically. Simon is given this assignment because of how effective and dedicated he had been in his role during a major downsizing. Simon gets more than he bargained for. He discovers something called the Farb Quartet, which several years ago played for employees. Just was the violinist. This gives him cover to meet with and evaluate Just to discuss the possibility of a Farb employee symphony. After two meetings and a visit to Just's home, it's clear to Simon that Just is exhausted, in the midst of some sort of crises and is racked by a deep sadness. And then Just tells Simon he knows all about Simon's assignment...and that Karl Rose was a child from a Nazi program to increase the numbers of Aryan children. Then there are the letters Just gives him, letters that talk about the role of Just's father at a death camp. This is followed by anonymous letters Simon begins to get which artfully combine sections of Simon's recommendations for downsizing and old Nazi instructions for killing people.

And on it goes for nearly two-and-a-half hours. There is no drama to speak of, just lots of long takes, long monologues and long scenes. There are lots of secondary issues that move around without resolution. It takes 80 minutes to get to where tension in Simon's assignment starts to build and where we think there might be something wrong in the relationship between Just and Rose. It takes 95 minutes to get to the point of the movie...activities at Nazi extermination camps and the lack of emotion about how people are treated today. "The business world is unforgiving," says Just. "How do you reconcile `the human factor' with the company's need to make money?"

Some viewers become angry or sarcastic when faced with movies like this. My emotions are sadness and boredom. Sadness because the serious intent of the movie's creators exceeds their abilities. Boredom, because no matter how earnest the intent of a movie, a movie's first responsibility is to engage the viewer at some meaningful level, even if that level is based only on technique. For example, the Farb Quartet. Says one character, "The Farb Quartet brings back bad memories...take four cards: a king, a queen, a jack and a six. Or a king of spades, a ten of clubs, a six of diamonds and a three of hearts. You can't win. You have to throw in your cards. I'm sure you can guess the cards: a CEO, a secretary, a sales rep and a chemist. Music doesn't tolerate hierarchy. The Farb quartet was a disaster." "Was Mr. Just the violinist? How did he play?" asks Simon. Says the executive he's talking to, "He was extremely tense, obsessively exact. He was so exact he stifled the music."

Now that hooked me. Then it turns out to be a bit of clever dialogue evidently no one wanted to cut. The Farb Quartet is irrelevant except as a dramatic device. And that's boring. In an unintended bit of irony, we also figure out that being a company psychologist must require all the supple morals of a physician who assists in "robust" interrogations of prisoners. I wound up not caring much for Simon. Michael Lonsdale, however, is a fine actor. It was almost worth seeing the movie to watch him.

The DVD is bare bones. It looks just fine except for some of the nighttime scenes when little can be made out.

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5.0 out of 5 stars If you enjoy challenging material this could be for you., 24 Jan 2009

By	pointone (Bournemouth UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Heartbeat Detector [2007]

"Heartbeat Detector" is one hell of a difficult film to fathom, it has taken me three viewings to understand just how complex and deep the issues raised in this film are.

Simon Kessler (Mathieu Amalric) a corporate psychologist responsible for recruitment has also written the rule book for selecting staff for redundancy, and promoting corporate bonding. Confident and assured in his position he is suddenly asked to investigate the increasingly strange behaviour of CEO Mathias Just.

The investigation leads him into his CEO's father's involvement in the early stages of the holocaust and he becomes increasingly disturbed, seeing false parallels between the NAZI persecution of ethnic minorities and his own selection methods, compounded by a report he reads on techniques used to prevent illegal immigrants concealing themselves in Lorries.

Simon comes to perceive himself as a latter day Adolf Eichmann.

The slow and subtle disintegration of Simon Kessler, some fine musical interludes tapping into his neurosis, his difficult relationship with his girlfriend Louisa (Laetitia Spigarelli), are all submerged in a complex dramaturgy with abstruse references to persecution.

Fortunately the fine acting by all the principals holds the problematical material together, but at times one does question the direction.

PROBLEM - is the film solely about the obsessive misguided collapse of an introverted and obsessive man, or is it a serious attempt to voice concerns about modern commercial disciplines running parallel to fascist regimes, possibly both.

"Heartbeat Detector" is not a film for the faint hearted, instead it is a major challenge and one the film does not resolve.

If you feel up to this kind of film you will not be disappointed, it was a fascinating and unique experience I not forget for a very long time.

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