Who else despise Hal Hartley?

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Just saw Surviving Desire. Have seen Ambition, Theory of Achievement, and the Unbelivable Truth, too. Unbelivable Truth was actually OK. But this Surviving Desire joint? What the fuck? I don't get it. Break it down. So he obviously doesn't despise intellectualism, but he's still mocking it, giving the film this breeze of dated irony. The idea of film about film is nasty (the dance scene without music, comment on musical, etc.). The idea of reductionism, that these characters go through years of emotions in 5 minutes - oh, so destilliation is good? fuck no, it doesnt make Me feel. we know it anyways, its not insightful. the whole theatricality of mundaneness juxtapiosed with the intellectualism (from talking litterature to talking detergent, deadpan), is a fucking dated joke as well. tell me why he is so revered. i dont get it.

― monkchild (monkchild), Wednesday, 1 September 2004 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

it wasn't dated when he made it?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:13 (twenty years ago) link

How about Trust, Simple Men, Amateur or Flirt?
Hartley is an acquired taste but I like the dead pan rhythms of his films.
I think maybe you are looking for an emotional connection to his films but he doesn't provide that. But that is because he is a stylist much in the same vein as Robert Bresson, Jim Jarmusch and to some degree Jean Luc Godard.
His appeal is his humor and his sense of irony. He is also a moral filmmaker who explores plot points from a Catholic point of view. And in some cases from the point of view of free will vs predestination.
True, he is not a Hollywood filmmaker who wants to please the audience nor is he a TV hack who wants ratings. And frankly that is one reason I like him.

― matt langdon (rashomon), Monday, 13 September 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago) link

"The idea of film about film is nasty (the dance scene without music, comment on musical, etc.). The idea of reductionism, that these characters go through years of emotions in 5 minutes - oh, so destilliation is good?"

This actually makes me want to rent some Hal Hartley tonight. Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure, I guess....

BTW--is there such a thing as a film that doesn't utilize reductionism? Even in epic Antonioni/Rossellini/Cassavettes/-type stretches of super-long takes and emotional development, there is never a scene that truly "plays itself out" because life itself doesn't work with a slate (there's no "action" and "cut"--tensions/events build and change over long periods of time).

Maybe the idea of deliberately compressing all of these stages of emotional evolution is a smart move for working in the film medium.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 14:54 (twenty years ago) link

I LOVE "Trust," and "Henry Fool" for its ambition even more than its considerable success as a sprawly narrative.

His recent features have certainly been a little lost ("No Such Thing") but he'l ldo well again. The early stuff is more like early short stories, I wouldn't demand much of them retrospectively.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 15:52 (twenty years ago) link

two months pass...

matt otm. Lot's of people don't like him, even/especially artfilm-lovers. I think the reason some don't like him is they think he is ripping off Godard like some clever/lazy film student-type (and if I remember correctly there is a dance scene in SImple Men lifted step-for-step from Band of Outsiders.) But his Godard on Long Island thing, I'll take it. Nobody else would or could do it. And I don't mind mannered dialogue if I can sort of see what the intention is (see also-David Mamet). I even saw the one originally called Monster (don't remember other title) on TV by accident a few months ago and thought it was really good. The guy from SImple Man gave a great performance as the monster.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 29 November 2004 03:24 (twenty years ago) link

hal lindsey isn't very good

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 29 November 2004 14:43 (twenty years ago) link

can we talk about hal hartley?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 29 November 2004 22:02 (twenty years ago) link

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