The New Zealand International Film Festival opens this Thursday, July 28, and is packed to the brim with exciting films from a range of genres. Critic was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at some of the films. Visit www.nzff.co.nz/Dunedin to check out the full programme, or grab one of the booklets from around town.
Dir: Xavier Dolan
Francis and Marie are close friends (and total hipsters). One day, during lunch, they meet Nicolas, a beautiful, mysterious young man who resembles a Greek sculpture. As one rendezvous leads to another, each of the two friends slide deeper into obsessive fantasies about the same object of desire. The more they fall in love, the more their once cast-iron friendship begins to crack under the pressure of competing for the arrogant dream boat that is Nicholas.
Heartbeats is a study of falling in love. We follow each stage of the typical love story’s progress – it starts with a meeting and ends in tears. The film reveals a fundamentally simple intrigue that careers through a whole gamut of poetic craziness: passions unleashed, expectations, sorrow, humiliation and, finally, loneliness. An incredibly stylistic and classy film, Heartbeats is a charming film for those who love beautiful people, French-language cinema (the director is Québecois) and a certain amount of mystique.
Heartbeats
