khaktus This is one of the rare movie, that prove "the last word can change the meaning of the whole sentence" - or the last scene can turn the message of the movie.Yes, it is dull, boring, long, unbearable - most of it's time - and you'll keep asking "why do I watch this?". But, the end will not only compensate for all the time of cinematic torture, but it will explain its meaning and importance. At the end you will be thankful, that you did get there and that you have seen this unknown, but breakthrough movie.Simply put - even in its form it uses the language of the topic, that it describes - and that is dehumanization of contemporary world, soulless work environment, corporate business. It not only shows you "the thing" and says it is not OK, it lets you experience, feel, live the thing.Now the part that may contain spoiler: Three sequences that stuck in my head - Boring and dehumanized talking of the corporate bosses among the present (but futuristic or distopian) exteriors of the glass & steel business centers. Next, yuppies "relaxing" on the party - according to the 0/1 digital approach of life. Maximum performance versus maximum limbo, from the top to the absolute bottom. Next, the discussion about the reduction or renewal of the work positions, optimizing, job-applicant's tests etc.The end - shocking, sharp and true comparison of our machine-like terminology related to work/job, "human resources", "working units", reduction, performance, effective - that is identical to the language that Nazis have used when describing human extermination process.

lastliberal I last saw Mathieu Amalric as Jean-Do in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Winner of a César for that performance and two others, he is an accomplished actor. He displays his considerable skills in this film, which has him in the role of a psychologist who must interpret words and actions of others.He is charged with assessing the mental state of the company CEO, Mathias Jüst, played brilliantly by Michael Lonsdale, who has two César nominations himself, and a BAFTA nomination for the 1973 version of The Day of the Jackal. This occurs soon after the company undergoes a massive downsizing.The verbal give and take between the two was captivating. It became really interesting when Jüst sprung upon him that he knew he was being investigated, and gave information the reached back to the Third Reich.The involvement of the principles in the extermination of Jews was reveled in a way that was similar to the discussion of the reduction of employees in the company. People were referred to as loads or units in each case, not as humans.The inhuman language of extermination becomes the inhuman language of business, and the children of the Reich are left to deal with their father's sins.Powerful.

darkmatter2 This is an interesting movie. The pace is slow, and the subject is painful, so it takes some effort to watch it from end to end. But in the end, it's worth it.The music is very effective in inducing empathy with the main character, who's going through a life-changing crisis.The main point is that today's corporate speak is dehumanizing ('units' to designate workers, 'efficiency', 'objectives'), in the same way as the Nazi's ruthless technical language of death was. Language can be a tool of destruction with a clean conscience.Not perfect - a bit over-obvious sometimes. Also, the people speak like books, which, for me, induced a distance and made suspension of disbelief harder. Good acting though.

Chris Knipp In this complicated philosophical thriller and meditation on modern varieties of evil, Simon Kessler (Matthieu Amalric), who narrates (echoing the source book by François Emmanuel), is a corporate psychologist working in the "human resources" department of the French branch of SC Farb, a German petrochemical company. A high-ranking official, Karl Rose (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), assigns Kessler the delicate task of investigating the mental state of company CEO Matthias Just (Michael Lonsdale). Kessler meets Just on the pretense of working up a plan for employee musical groups; years ago Just himself was part of a string quartet made up of staff members. (At 77 Lonsdale is still impressive, immense; to see him and the brilliant Amalric, 43, play off one another is worth the price of admission.) Just appears to be coming apart, yet he seems tired rather than crazy, and there is nothing specific. But what Kessler discovers, in Just, in the company, in the past of some of the employees, and in himself, leads him to come apart himself.This is a cold, dark-suited world inhabited by expressionless but dangerous men and women who smile, but bite back. The cinematography is of a chilly beauty. Music is a powerful thematic element. Schubert is associated with Matthias Just. American-educated French musician Syd Matters composed for the film. To unwind, Kessler and colleagues go to raves and, dance wildly to techno, and come unglued. The strobe lights' flashing seems a metaphor for the dirty secrets peeking out of hiding. Music torments Monsieur Just. He has never recovered from the death of a child and he comes unglued listening to an old tape of the company quartet playing Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden' when Kessler visits his house. The calm of classical music seems false. Some of its master composers come from the land of the Nazis.Despite the cute English title, in French this film is called 'La question humaine,' 'The Human Question.' Klotz, whose partner Elizabeth Persival collaborated on the adaptation, is working in the same mode of Claire Denis in The Intruder/L'Intrus and Arnaud des Pallieres in 'Adieu,' films that focus up close on highly culpable individuals but consider vast social issues and historical wrongs which they explore in challengingly fractured ways but in a language that is visually and aurally rich. Denis' "hero" was associated with various illegalities, including illegal organ sales. Adieu considers questionable business practices and the repression of immigrants. Heartbeat Detector gestures meaningfully toward apparently French executives' relationship with the Shoah.A little over halfway through the film Just delivers his bombshell to Kessler. First he points out that he knows Karl Rose (not his real name; it was Kraus) is having him investigated. He points out that in the recent company overhaul that eliminated over half the employees, Kessler played a big role in deciding who was to be axed. Then he explains Rose/Kraus's actual origins.Letters and papers begin to be passed back and forth. Some of them are in the hands of Just, recuperating from a dubious "suicide" attempt. There is a close examination of a German "shipment" whose passengers never survived in which someone's father was closely involved. The euphemisms of Nazi extermination where people are "pieces" or "units" seem not so far from the language of corporate "restructuring." Has the mentality of the Third Reich reformatted itself in western European industrial society? As Kessler comes apart, he loses his protective jargon. His "investigation" which Just called "une machination" (a plot) organized by Karl Rose, has turned into a probing of the human condition and the tentacles of the twenty-first century have been traced back into the middle of the twentieth.At its best 'Heartbeat Detector'/'La question humaine,' which is a little long, is as challenging and haunting as L'Intrus and Adieu and even more powerful and contemporary. At certain moments it seems to be lecturing us, but it also finds time to be fractured and funny.Presented as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, New York, February 29-March 9, 2008. US distributor: New Yorker Films.