i actually think hartley's sense of humor was better before his film-making skills became so much smoother. his 'middle-period' movies (_trust_ is one of my favorite flicks (i've got a sad tendency to watch it twice a year whether i need it or not), and i'm VERY partial to about 30 minutes or so of _simple men_) are imho the strongest in terms of dialogue and subtly ridiculous plot without being as overbearingly didactic as _flirt_ and _henry fool_. i will concur that _surviving desire_ (the one about the professor falling in love/lust with a student that someone mentioned earlier) is a little too contrived and maybe a bit silly, too. and that's how i think of more recent stuff like _flirt_. but i'm a sucker for martin donovan, and would probably put the first 20 minutes of _amateur_ up against any film in christendom, but that's really a matter of personal taste, isn't it? it's at this point i should stop rambling. (chris, about your quote about hartley being overbearing: i semi-agree (could he possibly be more overbearing than woody allen?), but isn't this sort of clunky posturing somehow more interesting than the sort of glossy fluffing that goes on in all manner of 'mainstream' films? *cf _pretty woman_, an admittedly overused example.) has anyone looked at this recently? http://www.best.com/~drumz/Hartley/ it's probably the best resource for all things Hartley if you want to know more. armchair critic, ian number five At 12:12 PM 6/22/99 -0700, McQuain, Chris wrote:

Also, yesterday somebody asked if any film critics on the list had an opinion of Hal Hartley. I have had (he ever-so-modestly and self-deprecatingly said) bits and pieces of my film criticism published, locally, and my opinion on Hartley is that he's very intelligent, I thought The Unbelievable Truth was okay, Henry Fool was quite good, but the Book of Life starring featured member of my Idol Parade PJ Harvey was crap. Any Hartley film will be more and more crap depending upon the degree of smugness he lets in, which at times is unbearably high. His 'humor' is like having a loud, foul person standing behind you nudging you and saying, "Get it? Get it?". Intolerable. Hartley is good to the degree that he can be serious and not let his Bazooka Joe humor invade his otherwise fine films.

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