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HEARTBEAT DETECTOR, by Nicolas Klotz

NICOLAS KLOTZ`S DISSONANT VOICE IN A PROGRAMMED-TO-WORK-OUT WORLD

The theme is one of the most fascinating in human relations. Human Resources department, responsible for selecting, motivating and deceasing employees in any company, has been the subject of academic studies for a long time. Many of the methods used by these departments are kept secret and are part of the classified files of big corporations.

This is the kind of secret that the French film LA QUESTION HUMAINE/HEARTBEAT DETECTOR, by Nicolas Klotz tries to reveal. Klotz is the director of PARIA (2000) and LA BLESSURE (2004), both about the marginal groups that economic stagnation made grow in France in the last decade. LA QUESTION HUMAINE, says Klotz, who is also known by the São Paulo IFF audience, closes this trilogy, but now with a look on the rich men’s world.

Nicolas Klotz follows two parallel paths in his incursion in the world that is programmed to work out, with zero risk. He guides us inside the nerves of the French branch of a big oil industry of German origins. Demanded by the company’s vice-president, the psychologist in charge of hiring and firing hundreds of people has to search through the life of its own president, who is suspect of mental insanity.

The secret inquiry reveals the great ability of two French actors – Mathieu Amalric as the psychologist, convinced of his messianic role, and veteran Michael Lonsdale as the boss who is deranged by the ghosts of his past.

And it is this past that comes to surface with the hired inquiry. The past of the company has undeniable connections with the Nazi regime and once again German fault brings back its shallow grave corpses. The film’s soundtrack has also an inquiring and deranging role. It goes from classics by Schubert to the weird sentimental Spanish songs, without denying its complicity to new rhythms, including techno. The 39th ‘Directors’ Fortnight’, even being clearly protective of the French yearly production, presents us important films like this one by Nicolas Klotz.


More information in :
www.festival-cannes.org

English version: Laura Rebessi