Film of the week: Listen To Your Heart

COULSDON COLLEGE: MEDIA TEXT INFORMATION SHEET

TITLE:

Listen to Your Heart

YEAR OF PROD:

2010

TYPE:

FILM

TELEVISION

DOC.

MUSIC

ADVERT

MUSIC VID.

OTHER:

DIRECTOR

Matt Thompson

PRODUCER

Kent Moran, Luke Moran

WRITER

Kent Moran

PRODUCTION COMPANY

Wishing Well Pictures, Rebel One Pictures

KEY CAST /ARTIST

Alexia Rasmussen (Ariana), Kent Moran (Danny), Cybill Shepherd (Victoria).

KEY CREW

Music: Kent Moran, DP: Harvey Rosenstock, Casting: Michael Hothorn

GENRE

Drama, Music, Romance

BUDGET

N/A

BOX OFFICE

N/A

THEMES

Love, conflict, betrayal, defeat, jealously, death, connection, communication, ‘living in the moment’.

AWARDS

6 wins e.g. Action on Film Award (Film International Film Festival USA).

NARRATIVE: The IMDb description: “Danny (Kent Moran) has an apartment as small as his paychecks, no family, and a struggling music career. But with unwaivering optimism, for Danny, "every day is a great day to be alive." It's love at first sight when Danny meets Ariana (Alexia Rasmussen), a wealthy hearing-impaired girl from Greenwich, CT who tragically cannot hear the music she inspires him to write. Ariana is torn between hanging onto the shelter her controlling mother (Cybill Shepherd) provides and fighting for a love that, if just given the chance, might just change her life. When tragedy strikes, determined that nothing can keep them apart, they must trust in the power of their love, and together discover just how important it is to "listen to your heart."” My opinion on the film: This film shocked me because I honestly did not expect it to be so sad. I watched it on Christmas Eve thinking it was going to be a more light-hearted musical but it was not that and the last 30 minutes of it was truly heart breaking which was not good and I probably should have watched a Christmas film instead. Although it was mostly very predictable and filled with clichés, it was still great story-telling and I did not expect the tragedy towards the end. The characters were well developed and of course, the relationship between Danny and Ariana was key and wonderfully performed, it felt real and true. The character of the mother really annoyed me, (which I guess was her role as she is causing a great deal of the conflict in the film) but to an extent where I was not enjoying the film as much and I understand films have antagonists but I feel they are not effective when the viewer is put off the film because of them. However, overall it was good, it is likely to make you cry quite a lot but if you are not into cliché romance films, you probably won’t like it. 7/10.

KEY SCENES: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT ·         Danny first sees Ariana in the café ·         Their first date and playing the piano together ·         Ariana talks in front of her Mother ·         Ariana slaps her Mother ·         Ariana’s Mother kicks Danny out of her party ·         Danny gets terminal cancer ·         Danny’s death ·         Ariana listens to Danny’s CD of music he composed for her.

COMPARABLES: Short film: The Most Beautiful Thing. In Your Eyes

PROGRESSION OF KEY CONTRIBUTORS: Matt Thompson went on to direct Bloodline (2013) and has recently completed a short film called Zombie Talk. Kent Moran has gone on to act in: Down on the Ground (short-2010), Inspiration of the Past (short-2012), Contest (2013), The Challenger (2015) and Regret (2015).

ANY OTHER BUSINESS? “The idea of the movie came to Kent Moran in a dream. He dreamed about the story for two weeks, writing notes each morning, and wrote the first draft of the screenplay in just two days. The final draft is very close to the first.” “Lisa Benner, who plays Marianne, was the only actor that knew sign language before the movie. Alexia Rasmussen and Kent Moran both had to learn quickly for their roles. They did so with the help of Lisa and a sign language interpreter.”