It started with the Cannes Screenplay prize winning "Henry Fool" in 1997, continued with "Fay Grim" in 2006, and now the story wraps up with "Ned Rifle." Hal Hartley's trilogy that started with a garbageman turned novelist, inspired to greatness by his friend Henry whose ego was bigger than his talent, features all of his trademark wit, dry humor and distinct tone. And just as the film heads into limited release, the director's works — which include "Trust," "Surviving Desire," and "The Book Of Life" — are getting a retrospective courtesy of Cinefamily in Los Angeles. "Hal Hartley's name is synonymous with 'independent filmmaking' since the golden age of Sundance. He's been writing, directing, producing his own films his own way — even playing the music or marketing them himself. It's been too long since he's been to Los Angeles, and with his newest 'Ned Rifle' — the completion of the trilogy that started with 'Henry.
- 3/30/2015
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.
One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.
This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.
There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...
One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.
This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.
There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...
- 7/11/2013
- by Terek Puckett
- SoundOnSight
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 22, 2013
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Adrienne Shelly finds herself in a potentially explosive situation in Trust.
The 1990 comedy-drama film Trust is the second feature from ‘90s independent stalwart Hal Hartley (Henry Fool, The Unbelievable Truth, Amateur).
Trust concerns the unusual romance/friendship between two young misfits wandering the same Long Island town. When Maria (Adrienne Shelly, Waitress), a recent high school dropout, announces her unplanned pregnancy to her family, her father dies of a heart attack, her mother (Merritt Nelson, Surviving Desire) immediately evicts her and her boyfriend breaks up with her.
Lonely and with nowhere to go, Maria wanders into town, searching for a place to stay. Along the way, she meets Matthew (former Hartley regular Martin Donovan of TV’s Damages) a highly educated and extremely moody electronic repairman living with his domineering and abusive father (John MacKay, Simple Men). The two...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Olive Films
Adrienne Shelly finds herself in a potentially explosive situation in Trust.
The 1990 comedy-drama film Trust is the second feature from ‘90s independent stalwart Hal Hartley (Henry Fool, The Unbelievable Truth, Amateur).
Trust concerns the unusual romance/friendship between two young misfits wandering the same Long Island town. When Maria (Adrienne Shelly, Waitress), a recent high school dropout, announces her unplanned pregnancy to her family, her father dies of a heart attack, her mother (Merritt Nelson, Surviving Desire) immediately evicts her and her boyfriend breaks up with her.
Lonely and with nowhere to go, Maria wanders into town, searching for a place to stay. Along the way, she meets Matthew (former Hartley regular Martin Donovan of TV’s Damages) a highly educated and extremely moody electronic repairman living with his domineering and abusive father (John MacKay, Simple Men). The two...
- 11/19/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
One of the preeminent voices in American independent film’s nascent boom years during the H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, Hal Hartley’s visibility has waned as his stylistic preoccupations have diverged from American arthouse audiences’ tastes, but his trademark sensibility is in fine form in his most recent film "Meanwhile," which, after bowing at last year’s Era New Horizons Film Festival in Poland, had its American premiere last night at the IFC Center in New York (more screenings of his films are playing with Hartley in attendance up until until April 4).
Focusing on a middle-aged, down on his luck jack-of-all-trades man who seems to be pathologically incapable of not helping people -- even when displaying his myriad talents on someone else’s behalf hinders his own struggles to get his novel published, find a new band to drum for, create a green tech start-up involving German windows and...
Focusing on a middle-aged, down on his luck jack-of-all-trades man who seems to be pathologically incapable of not helping people -- even when displaying his myriad talents on someone else’s behalf hinders his own struggles to get his novel published, find a new band to drum for, create a green tech start-up involving German windows and...
- 3/1/2012
- by Brandon Harris
- The Playlist
Imagine if Woody Allen, Whit Stillman, Kevin Smith and the Sundance Institute had a love child. This ungainly creature, speaking in witty, heightened, unnaturalistic sentences, and ambling, sometimes shambling between comedy, tragedy and pretension, might very well go on to make films that greatly resemble those of Hal Hartley.
Hartley is the man behind such beloved (at least by some) ‘90s indie films as “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Trust.” But to put him into proper context, we find ourselves casting around for parallels: he simply never made enough of a dent in mainstream sensibilities to be able to describe his work to a neophyte without reference to other, more overtly successful filmmakers. Or musicians, perhaps – if we play the equivalents game with the alt-rock explosion of the ‘90s, we get Quentin Tarantino as Nirvana, Jim Jarmusch as Sonic Youth and Kevin Smith as, maybe, Smashing Pumpkins (revered early on, but...
Hartley is the man behind such beloved (at least by some) ‘90s indie films as “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Trust.” But to put him into proper context, we find ourselves casting around for parallels: he simply never made enough of a dent in mainstream sensibilities to be able to describe his work to a neophyte without reference to other, more overtly successful filmmakers. Or musicians, perhaps – if we play the equivalents game with the alt-rock explosion of the ‘90s, we get Quentin Tarantino as Nirvana, Jim Jarmusch as Sonic Youth and Kevin Smith as, maybe, Smashing Pumpkins (revered early on, but...
- 2/29/2012
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
Okay, first the exciting news: Hal Hartley has made a new film!
What’s the “but”? Well, it’s not ready quite yet. It’s in post, though, so it’s close. To help it get to the finish line, Hartley has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its final post-production. He’s also appealingly pitched his campaign as a “DVD Collector’s Edition Pre-Buy.” For $25 you’ll receive this limited edition when the film is finished. And there are other rewards too. For example, for $1,000 you can be a co-producer. That’s right, a grand gets you a very nice IMDb credit.
Here’s what Hartley writes about the project on the Kickstarter page:
It’s like this: though I set out to make a one-hour featurette, like my earlier films Surviving Desire (1992) or The Book of Life (1998), by the time I was done I thought I ought to present...
What’s the “but”? Well, it’s not ready quite yet. It’s in post, though, so it’s close. To help it get to the finish line, Hartley has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its final post-production. He’s also appealingly pitched his campaign as a “DVD Collector’s Edition Pre-Buy.” For $25 you’ll receive this limited edition when the film is finished. And there are other rewards too. For example, for $1,000 you can be a co-producer. That’s right, a grand gets you a very nice IMDb credit.
Here’s what Hartley writes about the project on the Kickstarter page:
It’s like this: though I set out to make a one-hour featurette, like my earlier films Surviving Desire (1992) or The Book of Life (1998), by the time I was done I thought I ought to present...
- 11/2/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
DVD Playhouse: March 2010
By
Allen Gardner
Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire (Lionsgate) In-your-face, but undeniably powerful film that follows the plight of an overweight inner-city teen (Gabourey Sidbe, a real find) who must deal with an abusive mother (Mo’Nique, in a career-making turn for which she won a most-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar), a baby born of her abusive, and absent, father, and trying to survive day-to-day with few people to offer her help, save for a sympathetic teacher (Paula Patton) in a special ed program. Director/producer Lee Daniels, a former personal manager/producer-turned-filmmaker, brings a kitchen sink authenticity to the proceedings, along with a cast of famous powerhouse performers, who manage to disappear into their roles. Tough stuff, but not to be missed. Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher). Bonuses: Commentary by Daniels; Featurettes; Interviews with Sapphire and Daniels; Deleted scene. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
By
Allen Gardner
Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire (Lionsgate) In-your-face, but undeniably powerful film that follows the plight of an overweight inner-city teen (Gabourey Sidbe, a real find) who must deal with an abusive mother (Mo’Nique, in a career-making turn for which she won a most-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar), a baby born of her abusive, and absent, father, and trying to survive day-to-day with few people to offer her help, save for a sympathetic teacher (Paula Patton) in a special ed program. Director/producer Lee Daniels, a former personal manager/producer-turned-filmmaker, brings a kitchen sink authenticity to the proceedings, along with a cast of famous powerhouse performers, who manage to disappear into their roles. Tough stuff, but not to be missed. Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher). Bonuses: Commentary by Daniels; Featurettes; Interviews with Sapphire and Daniels; Deleted scene. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.
- 3/19/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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