The Beat My Heart Skipped
Jacques Audiard

When the idea of doing a remake was broached to French writer-director Jacques Audiard, virtually without thinking he blurted out the 1978 noir Fingers by James Toback. It was only later that he was able to stand back and consider why the selection seemed so obvious and immediate. He says that because the original was a genre piece and a latter day B-movie, he did not feel constrained by the story. In fact, there were only two scenes from Toback's movie that he felt compelled to replicate - a piano audition and a fight in a stairwell - and in the latter case he takes the struggle to a different conclusion.

In addition to their genre roots, the stories both focus on young men (Harvey Keitel in '78; Romain Duris in Beat) torn between pursuing talents as classical pianists and day jobs in petty crime. Both have complicated relationships with a father involved in activities that strain legality.

"Despite moving it from New York to Paris, I see it as faithful to the spirit of the first film," says Audiard. "What interested me the most were things that were I think less interesting to Toback. It allowed me to more fully explore those things he only wanted to sketch."

He says he also wanted to explore seemingly contrary things that generally aren't the hallmark of genre movies whether it was improvisation or the prosaic. And to set the parameters of what to expect, he adopted an introduction he characterizes as disorienting. It was his way of getting the audience's attention and gently prodding them into a more random than linear narrative.

It's his fourth film as a director following two critically acclaimed films - A Self-Made Hero and Read My Lips - and years writing scripts for other filmmakers. His father, Michel Audiard, was one of France's most acclaimed screenwriters and his uncle was a movie producer. In retrospect, he says entering the film industry was a decision he made cautiously and that his initial work was as a film editor because he was wary of following in his father's footsteps.

Growing up in the film industry demystified the process and personalities. He jokes that his first great love was Jean Gabin's daughter … when he was eight years old during a summer vacation with the two families. It also didn't seem terribly unusual when his father would ask him to help him out on a script.

"One day he just said that he thought there was a place in the industry for me and I understood that it was okay to be a writer," recalls Audiard. "He also said there's money to be made and I think that it's a good balance to remember it's business and art."

He particular chafes at auteurist notions of filmmaking popularized by a generation of French filmmakers that went on to direct.

"Auteurism works against the nature of collaboration that's essential in making movies," he observes. "I've collaborated on many of my scripts and whether I suggest something or it comes from the other writer, it's going to wind up being a negotiation; a discussion. And once you start that process, it shouldn't stop at any point during production. Why would anyone want to lock the film creatively?"

In his opinion, auteurism alienates the director from his actors and technicians. He finds it preferable to be challenged as he makes a film and leave a door open for the unpredictable.

While it's not common for the French to remake movies from other countries, there's a big cottage industry in selling remake rights to America. Audiard's Read My Lips was acquired by Barry Levinson and the filmmaker seems quite disinterested in its progress, stating only the hope that if an adaptation is made, it be sufficiently distinct from the original. When reminded of his father's comment about "money to made," he shrugs and laughs.

- by Leonard Klady