Socially inept garbage man Simon is befriended by Henry Fool, a witty roguish, but talentless novelist. Henry opens a magical world of literature to Simon who turns his hand to writing the ...
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A ten-years-later continuation of Hal Hartley's "Henry Fool", where Fay Grim (Posey) is coerced by a CIA agent (Goldblum) to try and locate notebooks that belonged to her fugitive ex-husband (Ryan). Published in them is information that could compromises the security of the U.S., causing Fay to first head to Paris to fetch them ...
Henry and Fay's son Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother's life. But his aims are frustrated by the troublesome Susan, whose connection to Henry predates even his arrival in the lives of the Rifle family.
Isabelle is an ex-nun waiting for her special mission from God. In the meantime, she is making a living writing pornography. She meets Thomas, a sweet, confused amnesiac who cannot remember... See full summary »
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Isabelle Huppert,
Martin Donovan,
Elina Löwensohn
The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Tokyo). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other ... See full summary »
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Paul Austin,
Robert John Burke,
Martin Donovan
Bitter about being double-crossed by the women he loved, (and with the police after him to boot), Bill vows to seduce the next woman he sees, then throw her away. His brother Dennis, ... See full summary »
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Robert John Burke,
Bill Sage,
Martin Donovan
After being thrown out of her house, Maria encounters a married woman who complains of not having children. Maria ends up in an abandoned house, where she meets Matthew. When a baby is kidnapped Maria sets out to find the woman.
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Adrienne Shelly,
Martin Donovan,
Rebecca Nelson
Jude, a college literature professor, falls for one of his students. She is more interested in the empirical experience of a relationship with a man whose life is ruled by the themes of the... See full summary »
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Martin Donovan,
Matt Malloy,
Rebecca Nelson
The end of the millenium has taken on a certain significance in modern day prophecies. What happens if Jesus Christ has second thoughts about the Apocalypse? It is December 31, 1999 and New... See full summary »
A man returns to his home town after serving a prison sentence for homicide, and finds that the details of the crime have been forgotten and replaced with local legends and rumors.
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Adrienne Shelly,
Robert John Burke,
Chris Cooke
The story of a young journalist who journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancée only to encounter a mythical creature. She eventually forges a relationship with the being.
Director:
Hal Hartley
Stars:
Sarah Polley,
Robert John Burke,
Margrét Ákadóttir
Socially inept garbage man Simon is befriended by Henry Fool, a witty roguish, but talentless novelist. Henry opens a magical world of literature to Simon who turns his hand to writing the 'great American poem'. As Simon begins his controversial ascent to the dizzying heights of Nobel Prize winning poet, Henry sinks to a life of drinking in low-life bars. The two friends fall out and lose touch until Henry's criminal past catches up with him and he needs Simon's help to flee the country.Written by
Josh Mueller <jomuelle@mailbox.syr.edu>
Henry Fool:
I can't work for a living, Simon, it's impossible. I've tried once. My genius will be wasted trying to make ends meet. This is how great men topple, Simon.
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Hartley is a major talent, a unique, competent voice in a bramble of sameness. The last project I saw was "No Such Thing," which is one of those that if you don't actively avoid it, it hits you deep in your soul and changes you.
Like most Hartley projects, it was more abstract and pure than usual. All theatrical projects are abstract, in fact they need to be abstract to seem real. But these projects, and especially "Thing" were abstract in unusual ways that were carefully sculpted as artistic statements with power.
It is a sophisticated method for what I call "folding," where the nature of the presentation is explicit in the presentation, and carries much of the message, the art.
But this is different. It is celebrated because it is more "normal," and it has performances that seem close to what we normally see. In this, he's found a sort of sweet spot between the highly formal approach of his other projects and the acceptably strange stuff we get from, say Wes Anderson, or in "Napolian Dynamite" or "Igby Goes Down."
It still has lots of talk, and talk about talk and writing and media, Hartley topics.
But all in all, I was disappointed. I wouldn't have been so if it were not a Hartley project. But I know he can cut deeply with his deviations. This seems too safe.
The odd thing is that the device in the story is a poem that is so weird and powerful it changes lives, falls magically on lives. It is rejected by the folks looking for normal stuff but carries the poet to fame just based on its effectiveness. This is Hartley's usual tack, but this film is too conventional to cut deeply.
Yes, it has superb performances. Even a one minute scene with a girl in a library (Rachel Miner) who gets an anonymous, personal poem, is so deftly done, that one scene inspires a whole imagined future.
But because there is better, more unique poetry from this man, I'll direct you elsewhere in his work.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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Hartley is a major talent, a unique, competent voice in a bramble of sameness. The last project I saw was "No Such Thing," which is one of those that if you don't actively avoid it, it hits you deep in your soul and changes you.
Like most Hartley projects, it was more abstract and pure than usual. All theatrical projects are abstract, in fact they need to be abstract to seem real. But these projects, and especially "Thing" were abstract in unusual ways that were carefully sculpted as artistic statements with power.
It is a sophisticated method for what I call "folding," where the nature of the presentation is explicit in the presentation, and carries much of the message, the art.
But this is different. It is celebrated because it is more "normal," and it has performances that seem close to what we normally see. In this, he's found a sort of sweet spot between the highly formal approach of his other projects and the acceptably strange stuff we get from, say Wes Anderson, or in "Napolian Dynamite" or "Igby Goes Down."
It still has lots of talk, and talk about talk and writing and media, Hartley topics.
But all in all, I was disappointed. I wouldn't have been so if it were not a Hartley project. But I know he can cut deeply with his deviations. This seems too safe.
The odd thing is that the device in the story is a poem that is so weird and powerful it changes lives, falls magically on lives. It is rejected by the folks looking for normal stuff but carries the poet to fame just based on its effectiveness. This is Hartley's usual tack, but this film is too conventional to cut deeply.
Yes, it has superb performances. Even a one minute scene with a girl in a library (Rachel Miner) who gets an anonymous, personal poem, is so deftly done, that one scene inspires a whole imagined future.
But because there is better, more unique poetry from this man, I'll direct you elsewhere in his work.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.