To say that Montreal’s Xavier Dolan burst onto the scene with his 2009 debut, I KILLED MY MOTHER (CIFF 2009), would be a gross understatement. The film hit the global festival circuit with a force unseen in Canadian cinema in decades. Winner of more than 31 awards at festivals from Cannes to Reykjavik, Dolan’s debut was incontrovertible evidence of a major new filmmaking talent.

HEARTBEATS (LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES) proves that debut was no fluke. Though it covers different ground from Dolan’s semi-autobiographical first film, it is no less steeped in the history of cinema, and no less assured in its take on love and relationships. This time, Dolan and Monia Chokri play a pair of friends who fall for the same mysterious newcomer. As both fall ever deeper into infatuation, their relationship begins to crack and crumble under the strain of their imagined love. Once again, Dolan has created an artful, affecting and above all cinematic depiction of passion, frailty and human nature that will guarantee him a place in the Canadian canon for a long time to come.

PH