Hal Hartley is just my all-out favourite auteur director, brought me through my teens and helped form my world view. When he makes a film you're in for something that is at the very least interesting, and at best, moves you, creates a new world out of the one you're already in, shows you the art in life. That sounds pretentious and some might think his films are too; but that's just the knee-jerk effect that comes with overexposure to rubbish presented as if it's art. But one good Hal Hartley film cures a soul wearied with too much dross.
"Amateur" is up there with "Trust" and "The Unbelievable Truth" if you have any time at all for films which are off-kilter, intelligent and which depart from the linear norm. They're also very funny, in a low-key way. His actors are usually regulars, skilled at his unique, poetic and rhythmic script style. His America is intriguing, a place painted with the eye of a true original, and presented with a rigour entirely absent from many more recent so-called independent American films. Another reviewer here noted the strong European flavour in his work; this is quite right; and if you enjoy a varied experience of film I can't see how you wouldn't like his best.
The plot of "Amateur" is crazy and contorted, like a dance, with a fascinating premise and a weird logic of its own. Martin Donovan here is Hartley's muse; he perfectly captures the rapid, deadpan delivery and manages to be charming and mysterious, dangerous and vulnerable with minimal changes in expression. Why his career has stayed largely small-scale is beyond me. Perhaps he goes about his work too quietly; perhaps his jaw isn't chiselled enough, I don't know.
But Isabelle Huppert is outstanding as the struggling porn writer fresh out of the convent. Says her scumbag-with-a-heart publisher of her attempts: "The problem is, it's quite bad. It's poetry, and don't you try and deny it." And it is poetry; heartbreakingly so. She looks out at the strange world, uniquely innocent, with her big, solemn eyes, and you instinctively feel with her, and wish her a knight to watch over her. And of course, this being Hal Hartley's world, her protector arrives, uniquely flawed. He could be Grandma; or he could be the Wolf. Excellent, good-looking and intriguing.
"Amateur" is up there with "Trust" and "The Unbelievable Truth" if you have any time at all for films which are off-kilter, intelligent and which depart from the linear norm. They're also very funny, in a low-key way. His actors are usually regulars, skilled at his unique, poetic and rhythmic script style. His America is intriguing, a place painted with the eye of a true original, and presented with a rigour entirely absent from many more recent so-called independent American films. Another reviewer here noted the strong European flavour in his work; this is quite right; and if you enjoy a varied experience of film I can't see how you wouldn't like his best.
The plot of "Amateur" is crazy and contorted, like a dance, with a fascinating premise and a weird logic of its own. Martin Donovan here is Hartley's muse; he perfectly captures the rapid, deadpan delivery and manages to be charming and mysterious, dangerous and vulnerable with minimal changes in expression. Why his career has stayed largely small-scale is beyond me. Perhaps he goes about his work too quietly; perhaps his jaw isn't chiselled enough, I don't know.
But Isabelle Huppert is outstanding as the struggling porn writer fresh out of the convent. Says her scumbag-with-a-heart publisher of her attempts: "The problem is, it's quite bad. It's poetry, and don't you try and deny it." And it is poetry; heartbreakingly so. She looks out at the strange world, uniquely innocent, with her big, solemn eyes, and you instinctively feel with her, and wish her a knight to watch over her. And of course, this being Hal Hartley's world, her protector arrives, uniquely flawed. He could be Grandma; or he could be the Wolf. Excellent, good-looking and intriguing.