The rough and the smooth: narrative, character and performance in Fingers (1978) and De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté /The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

Abstract

As is well known, Jacques Audiard’s De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (2005) is a remake of Fingers (1978), directed by James Toback. Bucking the usual trend of remakes, De battre is popularly regarded as a more successful film than Fingers. The French film helped propel the careers of Audiard and stars Romain Duris and Niels Arestrup, whereas the careers of Toback and Harvey Keitel stalled in the wake of Fingers. The French remake is also seen as more aesthetically successful in its narrative structure and characterisation. Where Fingers – in some ways typical of the New Hollywood cinema – revolves around the hysterically improbable masculine crisis of Jimmy Angeleli, incarnated in Keitel’s hyperactive performance, Duris’s more nuanced acting creates a more plausible and likeable character in Thomas Seyr. Ironically, the usual complaint about film remakes – that the ‘copy’ tends to smooth out the rough edges of the ‘original’, resolving ambiguities in a neat narrative arc – is arguably as true as ever in this pair of films where the standard national identifications are reversed (the French film is a polished remake of the problematic American model). This article compares the two films through a close reading of the performance styles of Keitel and Duris and an analysis of the protagonists’ respective character trajectories. In the process, it asks questions about Audiard’s debt to American cinema and about his work with actors.