Her Heart Still Beats (Short)
For the first time in my five-plus years of getting filmmaker screeners, I feel like I’ve gotten a very different look at a filmmaker from one movie to the other. Last year, writer-director Christopher DiNunzio sent me his very personal documentary, “Viva! Saint Agrippina,” about a street festival in his hometown that had a profound effect on him growing up. With his new short, “Her Heart Still Beats,” I’m capturing a glimpse of his work as a narrative filmmaker, and enjoying every minute of it.
Here, DiNunzio is drawing inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe’s classic story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” to tell a story of paranoia, and possible insanity. We open up on a shot of Ed (Fiore Leo) talking to the camera. He has just experienced something that is like out of a nightmare. One day, his wife (Sarah, played by Leighsa Burgin) comes home sick from work. She thinks she may have gotten something from one of the kids she teaches, but Ed notices something different in her eyes. Is he seeing things…or has she been possessed by something…sinister? No, of course I’m not going to tell.
In 25 minutes, DiNunzio captures the sinister malice and mood of Poe’s work without being, forgive the phrase, haunted by it. His story is very much his own, even if some of the elements (like the sound of a beating heart, as well as a score that uses sound design to add to a sense of paranoia) are familiar to genre fans. I could say that between “Viva! Saint Agrippina” and “Her Heart Still Beats,” I have some tell tale signs of DiNunzio as a talent to watch, but that would just be cheesy. It’d be best if you just watched his work for yourself to find out.
You can watch “Her Heart Still Beats” here.
