Starting with “The Unbelievable Truth” in 1989 and continuing in the ‘90s with films like “Trust” and “Henry Fool,” Hal Hartley was acclaimed as one of the leading voices of the new age of indie directors, following his own vision and eccentric style to create distinctively quirky stories.
But after eight films in ten years, Hartley’s output slowed and then, after “Ned Rifle” in 2014, stopped; it was partly due to Hartley’s expanding interests and partly to industry shifts that made his smaller films more difficult to fund and distribute.
Now Hartley’s back with “Where to Land,” featuring old favorites of his, Robert John Burke, Bill Sage and Edie Falco.
Hal Hartley’s latest film is “Where to Land.” (Photo credit Michael Koshkin / Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) Kim Taff in Hal Hartley’s “Where to Land.” (Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) Katelyn Sparks in Hal Hartley’s “Where to Land.” (Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) Bill Sage and Katelyn Sparks in Hal Hartley’s “Where to Land.” (Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) Edie Falco and Bill Sage in Hal Hartley’s “Where to Land.”(Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) Show Caption1 of 5Hal Hartley’s latest film is “Where to Land.” (Photo credit Michael Koshkin / Courtesy Hal Hartley/Possible Films) ExpandDisenchanted film director Joe Fulton (Sage) is looking to move on from movies, so he applies for a groundskeeping job in a local cemetery. But when he simultaneously starts preparing his will, his family and friends jump to conclusions and think he’s dying.
It is quintessential Hartley, mixing musings about life and death and the meaning of it all with contemplations of storytelling and a steady dose of comedy, some of it playfully silly. (There are two young filmmaker characters named Mick and Keith who provide an Abbott and Costello-esque exchange about classic rock bands.)
Hartley wrote the film a decade ago and funded it via Kickstarter, but the pandemic delayed things. Now the film arrives September 19 at the Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills as part of his self-distribution campaign. (He’s even getting the word out through a newsletter to his fans.)
The film is clearly somewhat autobiographical: Joe’s lawyer sits in his office beneath a poster for Hartley’s film “Flirt” and there’s a reference to Joe having made a movie with a hand grenade, a nod to “Trust;” they even filmed in Hartley’s New York apartment so if you study Joe’s bookshelves you’ll get a glimpse into the real life director’s interests.
Hartley recently spoke by video from that living room about making the film. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. You’ve said this was the best script you’d ever written. Why?
I just felt it was the most appropriate to my age and experience. It grew out of a novella I was working on. When I began writing it as a script, I had no intention of making it immediately, so I decided not to worry about whether it’s what the fans might be expecting right now or what the business is interested in. I didn’t want to be self-indulgent, but I just really wanted to explore the things that were important to me at the age of 58 years old as thoroughly as I could.
I also was going back to my roots. When I was a young man, I began feeling my oats as a writer when I rediscovered Moliere and farces – that was what started “The Unbelievable Truth,” which I wrote a week after reading “Tartuffe” and re-reading “The Misanthrope.”
So I felt like I was writing on two planes: one, the farce that I was rediscovering from 30 years ago, and a new one that I could only experience because I had worked for a long time and was of a certain age.
Q. Joe is leaving behind a changing film world to work outside with his hands. Did you try that?
It definitely grew out of personal curiosity about what I would do if I didn’t make films.
I looked for ways to get out of the film business in the late nineties – I started to do theater and staged an opera and began composing more seriously. I was also recently married, and I really felt like I needed to spend time with my wife. So I went away for maybe three years.
I had done OK, so I could afford that, but then I got back into it because making films is how I supported us, and it’s work I like. But in my mid-fifties, I began thinking I’d like to do something else. I was asking, “Is a person allowed to do that?” What happens if your fans, and even your loved ones, think, “You have to keep making films.”
Q. Joe is also pressured by his lawyer to make a detailed will. Was that personal, too?
Yes, I finally had to roll up my shirt sleeves and get my will done. And it just entertained the hell out of me. I said something like, “Is this what it all comes down to? Just making a list of what I own and who I want to give it to?”
Q. Are you a different director now than you were in the 1990s?
I’m much more confident about how I move people around and how they deliver the dialogue. There’s no ambivalence anymore. It started with “Ned Rifle.” I felt a clarity and exactitude of framing and an unapologetic organization, choreography of the movement of the performers. I no longer feel like I need to mollycoddle them, and I don’t have to apologize.
Q. Joe gets reeled back into directing. Did you feel like Michael Corleone, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
For Joe, it seems like the world around him, represented by friends and neighbors and family, wants him to keep making films. And so he will.
I wouldn’t have thought of Corleone, but yeah. After “Ned Rifle,” I promised myself not to do this again – this kind of independent filmmaking where I raised the money and distributed it myself, besides writing and directing.. There are certain satisfactions in that, but it’s very difficult. I just felt like I was done.
So I directed a lot of episodes of “Red Oaks.” I’d never done TV, but it was the best-paid job I’ve ever had. I wasn’t the boss, and that was one of the coolest things – I still had certain responsibilities, and I did them well, and they depended on my taste and my sensibility. It was really satisfying and I wouldn’t mind doing that again.
Then what brought me back to film was the inspiration of these characters.
Q. So maybe five years from now we’ll again be talking about how you came back just one more time for a new set of characters?
Certainly, if somebody wants to finance and distribute a Hall Hartley film, but that never really happened the way I wanted it to.
I don’t want to do it this way. It won’t be something I raised the money for myself. I promise you that.
Hence then, the article about hal hartley walked away from making films where to land brought him back was published today ( ) and is available on The Orange County Register ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Hal Hartley walked away from making films. ‘Where to Land’ brought him back )
Also on site :