There's a scene in Hal Hartley's 2006 film Fay Grim where Parker Posey is asked "Fay? Are you okay?" This is a question that can be asked in almost every one of Hartley's films. His movies are populated with people who are always in the midst of a crisis. He makes movies about men who are too smart, too complicated, too big for the world around them. They always seem to be waiting for the rest of the world to catch up to them. They're too intelligent by far, attractive, handy, self-reliant, dangerous, deadpan humorous and always preoccupied with the inner workings of things, always waxing philosophically about life, the universe and everything else. The men in his films always encounter strong, complex women who are a match for their curious, awkward, stilted attempts at figuring out life. The romance is always a little strange, quirky before the word meant what it does now, and doomed. As with most auteurs, one assumes that his characters are slightly removed versions of their creator, and not surprisingly, Hartley married an actress he worked with in his 1995 film Flirt.
Hartley's brilliance as a filmmaker lies in his writing. Since his first film in 1988, The Unbelievable Truth, his signature style has been evident, and still continues with his latest, 2012's Meanwhile. His characters speak in a poetic, sometimes jarring start-stop rhythm as if they're performing live for an audience. They speak fast, always bouncing back and forth off each other, theatrically enunciating and gesturing, almost as if allowing for a laugh track to come in or a live adjustment to be made. Talking is what most of Hartley's characters do best. In 1998's The Book Of Life, Jesus (Martin Donovan) and Mary Magdalen (PJ Harvey) ponder humanity and whether or not to trigger the apocalypse at the millenium and argue with Satan (Thomas Jay Ryan) about opening a program on an Apple laptop computer that will do so. In Flirt, 3 separate characters live their romantic lives in 3 different cities using the same dialogue. People seem to rarely be standing still in Hartley's movies, as if stopping would be akin to drowning. In fact, most of his characters are either running to or from something. A running theme in Hartley's work seems to be men who are perceived as dangerous always trying to escape or talk their way out of trouble. In the film No Such Thing, Sarah Polley is sent to Iceland to find a monster who killed her fiance. The monster, played by Robert John Burke, a frequent Hartley collaborator, is a sensitive, lonely, misunderstood creature who is at odds with the world because of his appearance and struggles to connect with Polley's character who tries to get him to come back to New York with her. In Simple Men, two brothers, played by Burke and Bill Sage, set off to find their fugitive father, a formerly famous mad genius. They argue, talk, philosophize, contemplate and argue some more. Continuing the theme of fugitive geniuses, 1997's Henry Fool, which is still considered Hartley's masterwork, concerns a mysterious stranger who arrives in the lives of the Grim family. Henry is a loud, garish, blustery writer who claims to have written the great novel of his time. He wreaks havoc on the Grim family, both inspiring and incriminating Simon, a bland garbageman who crafts a poem under the influence of Henry that makes him an instant star in the literary world, something that Fool could never achieve. Henry makes claims of having the secrets of the universe if people would just listen to him, for his genius and his bravado are always questioned. He eventually seduces and impregnates Simon's sister Fay, played by a fantastic Parker Posey, who would get her own story in 2006's Fay Grim but not before sleeping with their unstable mother in full view of Fay. In Fay Grim, it's many years later and Fay is being hounded by numerous state, federal and international agencies who want her help finding Henry's notebooks, which they believe hold state secrets. We learn more about the absent Henry, who since the end of Fool is on the run with the help of Simon, who is now in prison. Hartley writes fast and furious, his characters almost tripping over themselves in conversation, and Posey puts in the best performance of her career and that of anyone in Hartley's films in Fay Grim. She embodies everything that's great about Hartley and will soon be back to complete the family trilogy.
While the first focused on Henry and the second told Fay's story, the upcoming third film will feature the now 18 year old Ned, the son of Henry and Fay. It was just announced that Hartley is turning to Kickstarter, which he was able to successfully finance Meanwhile through to make Ned Rifle. Ned Rifle will tell the story of young Ned setting out on a journey to find his father and kill him for the trouble he has brought to the Grim family. It pretty much marks off everything on the Hal Hartley checklist and I for one can't wait. All the principles are on board and hopefully Hartley can find the amount he needs to get this going. The world created in these two films so far is fantastically woven, full of the extraordinarily mundane right next to the just plain extraordinary. Fay Grim is shot almost completely in what I learned is called Dutch angles, with the vast majority of the films scenes tilted precariously, so every shot looks as if it's on the verge of sliding away into something else if the characters don't finish their scenes quickly enough. It's sneakily tense and straddles the line between drama and tragicomedy. Henry Fool, made in the heyday of American indie film, looks slightly more aged but lacks none of the signature wit and storytelling that makes Hartley so brilliant. He birthed a world in Fool that will be continued in Ned Rifle and I can hardly wait. If you aren't familiar, I highly suggest delving into the world of Hartley. A double feature of Henry Fool and Fay Grim is as good a place to start as any.
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