The reason why I specifically connect Hal Hartley with the Angelika Theater is because that is where I saw his movies in the early 90s and where I had an interesting conversation about them with a middle-aged couple. Coming out of the theater, they stopped me to ask me if I liked the movie. I went on and on about how much I love Hal Hartley and he’s my favorite director. They seemed to not really understand why anyone would like these movies but they told me that they were his parents.
That is amazing. I had a very similar experience at a George Saunders reading at Burke's Bookstore in Memphis in the '90s, when his parents were among maybe twenty people in attendance. He read "The Falls," which ends with a man throwing himself into the water in seemingly doomed attempt to save some drowning women. His parents were in the back of the room and his mother clucked how sad it was and his father reassured her that the rescue attempt was successful.
I was in high school in the 90s when Trust played on late night TV, and I saw it. I missed the first few minutes and didn’t know the title of the film, and it took about a year of quoting it to anyone who would listen before I was able to identify the filmmaker and become properly obsessed with him. I had the exact reaction you describe, wondering if it was awful or the most exhilarating thing I’d ever seen. Clearly the latter, because I couldn’t get it out of my head for the rest of that year and indeed the rest of the next three decades. My DVD copy of the latest film has arrived (if I skipped supporting a Hartley Kickstarter, I would feel like I had really gone down the wrong path in life) but I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I can’t wait. I loved this piece, and your mini essay in the footnotes!
I saw a movie at the Angelika Theater in mid October, and as I do <ital>every single time</ital> I go to the Angelica, I wondered when the next Hal Hartley movie will come out. The fact that I wondered this and did not bother to ACTUALLY CHECK is gutting because it is clear now that I’ve missed the opportunity to see this new Hal Hartley movie in a theater. Deep, mournful, heavy sigh.
The reason why I specifically connect Hal Hartley with the Angelika Theater is because that is where I saw his movies in the early 90s and where I had an interesting conversation about them with a middle-aged couple. Coming out of the theater, they stopped me to ask me if I liked the movie. I went on and on about how much I love Hal Hartley and he’s my favorite director. They seemed to not really understand why anyone would like these movies but they told me that they were his parents.
That is amazing. I had a very similar experience at a George Saunders reading at Burke's Bookstore in Memphis in the '90s, when his parents were among maybe twenty people in attendance. He read "The Falls," which ends with a man throwing himself into the water in seemingly doomed attempt to save some drowning women. His parents were in the back of the room and his mother clucked how sad it was and his father reassured her that the rescue attempt was successful.
I was in high school in the 90s when Trust played on late night TV, and I saw it. I missed the first few minutes and didn’t know the title of the film, and it took about a year of quoting it to anyone who would listen before I was able to identify the filmmaker and become properly obsessed with him. I had the exact reaction you describe, wondering if it was awful or the most exhilarating thing I’d ever seen. Clearly the latter, because I couldn’t get it out of my head for the rest of that year and indeed the rest of the next three decades. My DVD copy of the latest film has arrived (if I skipped supporting a Hartley Kickstarter, I would feel like I had really gone down the wrong path in life) but I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I can’t wait. I loved this piece, and your mini essay in the footnotes!
I saw a movie at the Angelika Theater in mid October, and as I do <ital>every single time</ital> I go to the Angelica, I wondered when the next Hal Hartley movie will come out. The fact that I wondered this and did not bother to ACTUALLY CHECK is gutting because it is clear now that I’ve missed the opportunity to see this new Hal Hartley movie in a theater. Deep, mournful, heavy sigh.
Good news! It's screening at MOMA on 12/13. https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11041