Editorial Review

A much-loved cult favorite often overlooked by the mainstream, Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (28)

Trust

Black Humor, White Trash
If you like John Waters films (particularly "Female Trouble" and "Pink Flamingos") but were disappointed that they didn't quite clear the hurdle to being funny, then "Trust" is for you.
Trust will be released on DVD in September 2005
see http://www.aztecinternational.com.au/cat_trust.htm
Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Writer-director Hal Hartley (Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (32)

Not my favorite Hartley, but still worth seeing
I would rate this in the mid- to low-range of Hartley films - but I still recommend it because even a sub-par HH is miles above most other directors' best efforts. It's one of those things where I see what he's trying to do (modern-day fairy tale, satirical allegory etc.) and in theory it should work, except it falls flat in the end because the plot ends up being somewhat forced and unoriginal.
best character I have seen...in a long...long...time!
You know, the new Star Wars movies did not have a character that could hold my interest, but the monster in this movie does.Mr. Burke, had to wear skin to play this part, but he played it with more than the skin, with his eyes, expressions, his voice.I have not seen a more unique character than this one.My favorite character in books is from 'Le Miserables', and from movies, this monster.Watch it you'll be surprised.

One of the oddest films I've ever seen
The main character, Beatrice, is a saint in the making.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Hal Hartley's three-part film about desire and commitment has an interesting experimental quality: the first and second stories are essentially the same tale with the same dialogue, but with contrasting orientations. Part 1 is set in New York in 1993, with Bill (William Sage) standing in a phone booth, listening to a lover, Emily (Parker Posey), trying to talk him into making a marriage proposal before she accepts another. After they hang up, Bill is on the line with Margaret (Hannah Sullivan), making the same sort of entreaties Emily had made to him. Reality and fantasy start to merge as three homeless men begin advising Bill in a restroom about his love life, and Margaret's husband gets ready to shoot himself. Part 2 is set in Berlin in 1944, where the preceding story is recycled among a group of homosexual characters. Finally, the trilogy ends in 1995 Tokyo, where we watch a mime troupe distill Hartley's narrative template to its dramatic essence.The overall effect of Hartley's wandering eye for locale and placement is a compelling study of the mysteries of "story" itself, a formalist issue the writer-director has always dealt with in the most disarming, comic ways.There's less laughter in Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (12)

A Hal Hartley masterpiece
Hal Hartley appears to be an acquired taste...I have only seen 3 of his films so far (this, the flat-out brilliant Trust, and the okay Henry Fool) but he's clearly one of the most underappreciated American directors working today. I think the delivery of his dialogue is what kills it for most people. It's very deliberate and generally not filled with an overkill of emotion. I find this approach allows me to listen to what the characters are actually saying (as opposed to just how they're saying it). That Hartley's one of the few screenwriters with something to actually say really seals the deal. Not your typical romantic movie
FLIRT is not your typical romantic movie of the 90's (when it was filmed).But that's what makes it so great.If you are tired of the "boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" scenario, then you'll like FLIRT.If not, go rent SHE'S ALL THAT with pretty boy Freddie Prinze, Jr.And spare me the details, please. My Thoughts
I thought it was very interesting of how the three stories are somewhat different but the outcome is the same.It's as they have a connection between each other, even though each story takes place in a differentenvironment and time all together.As if they all had a vision of thisevent happening, and that's what makes it so intriguing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Editorial Review

Simon (James Urbaniak), a shy garbage man, lives with his sister (Parker Posey of Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Dolby
• NTSC

Reviews (47)

An absolutely brilliant, mesmerizing film
One tries not to throw the word brilliant around too often, as doing so robs the word of any meaning, so I am quite sincere when I bestow the word brilliant on this remarkable film - after all, what is artistic brilliance if not the ability to call forth beauty from the midst of ugliness?This story takes place against a depressing backdrop of poverty, desperation, and dysfunction.Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) works as a garbage man, endures physical attacks on the streets, and comes home each night to a thoroughly dysfunctional family.His mother is obviously depressed and, at times, nonresponsive, while his sister Faye (Parker Posey) is irresponsible and only interested in fulfilling her own sexual needs as often as possible.Simon himself seems anti-social if not mentally challenged.Then a stranger named Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) shows up and changes everything.He has a magnetic personality, albeit one that pushes some people away while drawing others in, and he befriends Simon.Beaming literary pretentiousness, Henry goes on and on about his personal memoirs (or confessions), which he assures Simon will revolutionize the world and society when they are completed and published.When Simon begins following Henry's lead, he produces a new kind of poetry, one which Henry hails as cutting-edge and revolutionary.While his mother and sister ridicule him, Simon is encouraged by Henry to keep writing, rightly pointing to some amazing changes that occur in individuals who read a sampling of his work.Critics initially hail his great poem as poorly written and pornographic (the ultimate put-down), yet Simon perseveres through doubt, tragedy, and controversy, eventually meeting with great success - which changes the lives of these characters irrevocably.
An intriguing allegory! Well worth the watching.
Wow, what a wonderful place this film goes to, and surprisingly so. Make your way through it somehow to the end. It's worth it. It has some tedious situations, and the Henry character is often distasteful, but overall, this film is the kind of great accomplishment that only the independents can achieve. If you consider yourself an artist of any type, and are wrestling with the questions around production and integrity, this film will be worth your while. It ends up pivoting profoundly around some of the great dilemmas of the modern artist, and offers up a few wonderful images, as well. Makes me want to pull down my ruled notebook and get to work. "Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's asleep," said King Lear. A good fool is worth indulging, and maybe even more.

Comic Epic with Heart, Soul and Bruises
Hartley's Masterpiece: An epic, dark comedy with heart and soul and bruises.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Filmmaker Hal Hartley is something of an acquired taste. But if you can get on his oddball, deadpan wavelength, you can't help but enjoy his films--and this is one of his best. Isabelle Huppert plays a former nun who now works as a pornographer. She connects with Martin Donovan, playing a fellow who's lost his memory, but whose past may contain particularly nasty stuff. As they look for a way to get away from that past (which includes a couple of hit men who look like stockbrokers), the two discuss the meaning of their lives in hilariously vague ways. Hartley's dialogue is tart and concise, filled with acidic but low-key humor. And Donovan, who also starred in the director's equally good Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (17)

The Hartley Factor
Typically, Hartley's films are not for everyone (some might argue they're not for anyone). Still, if you've got the patience, you familiarize yourself with the style of writing, pacing and acting, you'll be rewarded.Or you could just be like me and instantly devour everything Hartley writes, shoots and films with an insatiable appetite.Whatever works for you.
Who is "this man?"
"Do you know this man?" During the opening scene of AMATEUR "this man" finds himself sprawled out on a cobblestone road outside an apartment building in New York. After recovering, he'll find that his fall from a second floor window has deprived him of his memory, and in an amnesiac haze he'll stumble into a diner where a self-professed nymphomaniac ex-nun (who is still a virgin 15 years removed from the convent) and wanna-be writer of smut, will adopt him as part of what she believes to be a mission from God - her calling. The more she finds out about "this man's" unseemly past the deeper she finds herself immersed in a web of blackmail and violence, with a former porn actress and three accountants, two of which are assassins. Is "this man" the sum of all the facts that we have gleaned from others? Is "this man" really the vicious monster that his ex-wife and former business associate claim? Is "this man" the same man since he has lost his memory? Does anyone really know anyone? In AMATEUR every character is running away - unsuccessfully - from their identities and desperately trying to reinvent themselves and escape from a past that continues to haunt them. An original, quirky film that is difficult to categorize - black comedy? Suspense thriller?

Best Hartley Ever
This is my favorite Hal Hartley film, several of the scenes do not fail to bring a tear to my eye or give me a feeling of frisson and I saw it for the first time in 1995.I think that should say it all.Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Editorial Review

Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (25)

Wonderful movie, indifferent transfer
I won't speak to the joys of this movie...others have done so here much more eloquently than I ever could. I will, however, note that there are a few technical aspects of this dvd that bothered me. First is the aspect ratio. Hal Hartley is a master at framing a shot, and there are many times in this release that his framing is ruined, because the top or bottom is lopped off. There are also scenes in which a mood was set using dark, heavily tinted light. Thanks to (I assume) automated conversion to dvd, those scenes have been altered so they appear to take place in nice, bland sunlight.
Deeply Felt
I'm not one to go in length about films on Amazon, but I'll write a short little bit for this amazing film. I first saw this 10 years ago when I was in my teens and have never forgotten it, it really touched something inside of me, much like a great piece of art would affect you after seeing it up close for the first time.

"Trouble and Desire" =Another Terrific Hartley Project
Hal Hartley never fails to entertain, never fails to engage my mind and emotions on a parallel level.Simple Men is no exception.The seemingly simple plot - two brothers in search of their missing dad - provides so much room for character growth that I wish there were an entire series of films centered around them.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Read more

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (11)

Interesting to see his first film, but liked Trust a whole lot better
I just bought and watched Surviving Desire and maybe due to my high expectations I was left a bit disappointed. It was definitely all Hal Hartley and the shorts "Ambition" and "Theory of Achievement" were interesting, but something bothered me about the main feature. It takes itself way too seriously. I love Trust and even The Unbelievable Truth and also Kiss Me, Hold Me - there's a lightness to them PLUS the fantastic insight of Hal Hartley and I am thinking it may have to do with Adrienne Shelley. She is the PERFECT match to Martin Donovan. I just like Andrienne's face. Does anyone know why she stopped doing films?

Poetry Disguised as Film
Poets with an appreciation for life above the poverty line wisely select more frequented media like music, movies, or monology as their vehicle. The life of the most celebrated poets are still awash in Ramen and rent. Hartley's films are dense with pause-rewind-replay a line dialogue almost to a fault. I used to take myself as seriously as Hartley's roster of misfits sporting designer melancholy personas and crippled by philosphical dilemmas that serve as a nappy gnarled dreadlock for the movie to comb out.I loved Hartley's fims in my 20s. Now 39 I revisit with some wincing but not enough for me to change my mind that this and his other films are filled with true human wisdom and many revelations put into words for any willingly troubled liver of a non-illusion buffered life to intend to jot down but not finda pen within reach.

Typical brilliant Hal Hartley
"Survivng Desire", along with the three shorts are some of Hartley's earliest work. But even at this early stage, Harley's gifts are clearly visable. I first saw the shorts some years ago as part of the PBS series "Alive from Off Center" and was mesmerized. Hal Hartley is one of America's truly great directors and his ability to pull such engaging performances out of his cast is a complete pleasure to watch. His style of film making probably most closesly resembles that of Robert Bresson, in its setup and excecution. But Hartley's point of view is totally original and for that, every one of his films has been a completely rewarding experience... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Comedy Video    3. Feature Film-comedy    4. Movie   

Editorial Review

Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (25)

Wonderful movie, indifferent transfer
I won't speak to the joys of this movie...others have done so here much more eloquently than I ever could. I will, however, note that there are a few technical aspects of this dvd that bothered me. First is the aspect ratio. Hal Hartley is a master at framing a shot, and there are many times in this release that his framing is ruined, because the top or bottom is lopped off. There are also scenes in which a mood was set using dark, heavily tinted light. Thanks to (I assume) automated conversion to dvd, those scenes have been altered so they appear to take place in nice, bland sunlight.
Deeply Felt
I'm not one to go in length about films on Amazon, but I'll write a short little bit for this amazing film. I first saw this 10 years ago when I was in my teens and have never forgotten it, it really touched something inside of me, much like a great piece of art would affect you after seeing it up close for the first time.

"Trouble and Desire" =Another Terrific Hartley Project
Hal Hartley never fails to entertain, never fails to engage my mind and emotions on a parallel level.Simple Men is no exception.The seemingly simple plot - two brothers in search of their missing dad - provides so much room for character growth that I wish there were an entire series of films centered around them.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (23)

Mercy In The Hour of Our Death
"Do YOU believe you have a soul?" Comparatively, Hal Hartley's apocalyptic "The Book of Life" seems far more relevant today than it did just several years ago reflecting late 90s Y2K hysteria as we approached the end of the millenium. An illusory state of grace? Hey, God only knows.
An amazing postmodern film
I must admit at first I didn't enjoy the film, but after having watched it 4 times I managed to understand the film and derive meaning - the dialogue is just as important as the other film production techniques in the book of life - characterisation is superb and story development was commendable
beyond belief
Living in England, I doubted I would ever get to see this short, let along actually own it. This is a multiregional release, so us Limeys can purchase the DVD as well as you darned Yankees. The film itself is only an hour or so, but succeeds on every level - there's not an ounce of fat on it. A freewheeling take on millenial apocalypse, it stars Hartley veteran (and all round object of desire) as, appropiately, God versus Thomas Jay Ryan's delicious Satan. A superb supporting cast including PJ Harvey (a revelation) and Hartley's better half Miho Nikado help bolster this humorous and theologically inventive piece into the realms of pure cinematic joy. Thomas Jay Ryan's Satanic deliveries to camera are superb. His best film? Quite possibly. Go on, shoot me. Reccomended without hesitation to all. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Comedy Video    3. Feature Film-comedy    4. Movie   

Editorial Review

The films of Hal Hartley, New York's modern beatnik cinema laureate, are not for everyone. His self-consciously clever ping-pong dialogue sounds like a cross between song lyrics and Samuel Beckett, while his deadpan direction gives a wry cast to it all. It's romantic comedy skewed through a thoroughly modern perspective, and it sprung fully formed in his debut feature. Gloomy redheaded pixie Adrienne Shelly, a neurotic high school student fixated on doomsday scenarios, falls for the tall, dark, and mysterious Robert Burke, a black-clad, philosophy-spouting mechanic who is constantly mistaken for a priest and rumored to be a convicted murderer.Read more

Features

• Color
• Letterboxed
• Original recording remastered
• Widescreen
• NTSC

Reviews (12)

where is trust????
i agree with chad taylor!there must be a really good reason
Must be good movie
I haven't seen this movie yet, but where is TRUST? Who can forget that movie and the dialogue and the plot and the memorable music? For heaven's sakes, why isn't this out on DVD? Amazon, read this...Trust, by Hal Hartley

My favorite Hartley Film
If you like Trust and Simple Men then you'll love this film. Personally I love all of Hartley's works, but to me these three films just go so well together. They're all earlier works and in these films you witness an incredibley inspired director do more with a low budget film than most high paid directors could ever dream of doing. I'd also like to say that if you've never seen a Hal Hartley film then this is probably the best point to start out at. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-comedy    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

The films of Hal Hartley, New York's modern beatnik cinema laureate, are not for everyone. His self-consciously clever ping-pong dialogue sounds like a cross between song lyrics and Samuel Beckett, while his deadpan direction gives a wry cast to it all. It's romantic comedy skewed through a thoroughly modern perspective, and it sprung fully formed in his debut feature. Gloomy redheaded pixie Adrienne Shelly, a neurotic high school student fixated on doomsday scenarios, falls for the tall, dark, and mysterious Robert Burke, a black-clad, philosophy-spouting mechanic who is constantly mistaken for a priest and rumored to be a convicted murderer.Read more

Features

• Color
• Widescreen
• NTSC

Reviews (12)

where is trust????
i agree with chad taylor!there must be a really good reason
Must be good movie
I haven't seen this movie yet, but where is TRUST? Who can forget that movie and the dialogue and the plot and the memorable music? For heaven's sakes, why isn't this out on DVD? Amazon, read this...Trust, by Hal Hartley

My favorite Hartley Film
If you like Trust and Simple Men then you'll love this film. Personally I love all of Hartley's works, but to me these three films just go so well together. They're all earlier works and in these films you witness an incredibley inspired director do more with a low budget film than most high paid directors could ever dream of doing. I'd also like to say that if you've never seen a Hal Hartley film then this is probably the best point to start out at. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Filmmaker Hal Hartley is something of an acquired taste. But if you can get on his oddball, deadpan wavelength, you can't help but enjoy his films--and this is one of his best. Isabelle Huppert plays a former nun who now works as a pornographer. She connects with Martin Donovan, playing a fellow who's lost his memory, but whose past may contain particularly nasty stuff. As they look for a way to get away from that past (which includes a couple of hit men who look like stockbrokers), the two discuss the meaning of their lives in hilariously vague ways. Hartley's dialogue is tart and concise, filled with acidic but low-key humor. And Donovan, who also starred in the director's equally good Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (17)

The Hartley Factor
Typically, Hartley's films are not for everyone (some might argue they're not for anyone). Still, if you've got the patience, you familiarize yourself with the style of writing, pacing and acting, you'll be rewarded.Or you could just be like me and instantly devour everything Hartley writes, shoots and films with an insatiable appetite.Whatever works for you.
Who is "this man?"
"Do you know this man?" During the opening scene of AMATEUR "this man" finds himself sprawled out on a cobblestone road outside an apartment building in New York. After recovering, he'll find that his fall from a second floor window has deprived him of his memory, and in an amnesiac haze he'll stumble into a diner where a self-professed nymphomaniac ex-nun (who is still a virgin 15 years removed from the convent) and wanna-be writer of smut, will adopt him as part of what she believes to be a mission from God - her calling. The more she finds out about "this man's" unseemly past the deeper she finds herself immersed in a web of blackmail and violence, with a former porn actress and three accountants, two of which are assassins. Is "this man" the sum of all the facts that we have gleaned from others? Is "this man" really the vicious monster that his ex-wife and former business associate claim? Is "this man" the same man since he has lost his memory? Does anyone really know anyone? In AMATEUR every character is running away - unsuccessfully - from their identities and desperately trying to reinvent themselves and escape from a past that continues to haunt them. An original, quirky film that is difficult to categorize - black comedy? Suspense thriller?

Best Hartley Ever
This is my favorite Hal Hartley film, several of the scenes do not fail to bring a tear to my eye or give me a feeling of frisson and I saw it for the first time in 1995.I think that should say it all.Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa   

Editorial Review

The films of Hal Hartley, New York's modern beatnik cinema laureate, are not for everyone. His self-consciously clever ping-pong dialogue sounds like a cross between song lyrics and Samuel Beckett, while his deadpan direction gives a wry cast to it all. It's romantic comedy skewed through a thoroughly modern perspective, and it sprung fully formed in his debut feature. Gloomy redheaded pixie Adrienne Shelly, a neurotic high school student fixated on doomsday scenarios, falls for the tall, dark, and mysterious Robert Burke, a black-clad, philosophy-spouting mechanic who is constantly mistaken for a priest and rumored to be a convicted murderer.Read more

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (12)

where is trust????
i agree with chad taylor!there must be a really good reason
Must be good movie
I haven't seen this movie yet, but where is TRUST? Who can forget that movie and the dialogue and the plot and the memorable music? For heaven's sakes, why isn't this out on DVD? Amazon, read this...Trust, by Hal Hartley

My favorite Hartley Film
If you like Trust and Simple Men then you'll love this film. Personally I love all of Hartley's works, but to me these three films just go so well together. They're all earlier works and in these films you witness an incredibley inspired director do more with a low budget film than most high paid directors could ever dream of doing. I'd also like to say that if you've never seen a Hal Hartley film then this is probably the best point to start out at. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa