Dutch postcard. Poster for Les amours imaginaires (Xavier Dolan, 2010).
Tales of romantic pitfalls
Les amours imaginaires/Heartbeats (2010) tells a story interspersed with interview tales of romantic pitfalls. Friendship turns to romantic rivalry for gay man Francis (Xavier Dolan) and straight woman Marie (Monia Chokri) when a veritable Adonis named Nicolas (Niels Schneider) enters their lives.
Sexual tensions mount as Francis and Marie await Nicolas' show of preference. The two friends each begin taking bolder steps in hopes of earning Nicolas' attention until their rivalry threatens to destroy their friendship.
Les amours imaginaires was directed by the then 21-year-old Canadian Xavier Dolan. Mike Goodrich at Screen Daily: "A ménage a trois that owes as much to contemporary French cineastes like Ozon, Honore, and Lifshitz as it does to Jules And Jim, Heartbeats proves that Dolan is no flash in the pan and should build his reputation on the international festival circuit."
Mark Deming at AllMovie: "Heartbeats is clearly Xavier Dolan's show - he starred in, wrote, produced, edited, and directed the film as well as coordinating the costumes, and cinematographer Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron lavishes as much mood lighting and flattering angles on the auteur as on his co-stars Monia Chokri and Niels Schneider, both of whom frankly have a natural advantage in the good-looks department.
As an actor, Dolan brings a callow arrogance to his character that suits him well, and Chokri is a good match as the edgy and self-obsessed Marie, who, as hard as she tries, never seems fully convinced of her very real allure.
Niels Schneider is given the task of playing a man who is at once handsome, charming, and utterly blank, and he manages all three quite well; it's hard to say how much of this is acting and how much is the natural effect of a guy who really doesn't care, but whatever it is, it works onscreen."
Dutch postcard. Poster for Les amours imaginaires (Xavier Dolan, 2010).
Alternately infuriating and delicious
Xavier Dolan had stormed onto the international scene with his debut J'ai tué ma mere/I killed My Mother (2009) for which he won three awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
Les amours imaginaires/Heartbeats (2010) was his follow-up. Mike Goodrich at Screen Daily: "The second film from the precociously talented 21-year-old Canadian Xavier Dolan is alternately infuriating and delicious. While Dolan’s visual tricksiness and mannerisms wear on the patience, he does achieve occasional moments of visual poetry and, appropriately bearing in mind his age, captures the despair and longing of young heartache."
Mark Deming at AllMovie: "As the film veers from comedy into something deeper and darker, Chokri and Dolan guide their characters well, and as a director, Dolan handles the tonal shifts of the narrative and the emotional ups and downs of the characters with confidence, though his sense of pacing isn't always quite as solid, as the film drags in the second act."
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard category at the 63e Festival de Cannes in May 2010 where it received a standing ovation. It won the top prize of the Official Competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June and screened at several film festivals throughout 2011, but failed to find audiences in non-French-speaking countries.
Nowadays, only 31, Xavier Dolan has written and directed eight feature films. Dolan has won many awards for his work, including the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mommy (2014) and the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for It's Only the End of the World (2016). He has also won several Canadian Screen Awards and César Awards.
Dutch postcard. Poster for Les amours imaginaires (Xavier Dolan, 2010).
Trailer Les amours imaginaires/Heartbeats (2010). Source: MovieFans.tumblr.com. (YouTube).
Sources: Mark Deming (AllMovie), Mike Goodrich (Screen Daily), AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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