The Cinema of Hal Hartley: Flirting with Formalism (Directors' Cuts)

The Cinema of Hal Hartley: Flirting with Formalism (Directors' Cuts)

Over the course of nearly thirty years, Hal Hartley has cultivated a reputation as one of America's most steadfastly independent film directors. From his breakthrough films – The Unbelievable Truth (1989), Trust (1990), and Simple Men (1992) – to his recently completed 'Henry Fool' trilogy, Hartley has honed a rigorous, deadpan, and instantly recognizable film style informed by both European modernism and playful revisions of Classical Hollywood genres. Featuring new essays on this important director and his films, this collection explores Hartley's work from a variety of aesthetic, cultural, and economic contexts, while also looking closely at his collaborations with actors, the contexts of his authorial reputation, his reworking of the romantic comedy and other genres, and the shifting economics of his filmmaking. This book, up-to-date through Hartley's latest film, Ned Rifle (2014), includes new scholarship on the director's early work as well as reflections on his cinema in connection with new theories and approaches to independent filmmaking. Covering the entire trajectory of his career, including both his features and short films, the book also includes new readings of several of Hartley's seminal films, including Amateur (1994), Flirt (1995), and Henry Fool (1997). Hal Hartley has been at work for a quarter of a century and his films still seem like fresh discoveries. Independent, individualistic, idiosyncratic, and indefatigable, he defies all known pigeonholes, and this balanced, wide-ranging collection marks a welcome new stage in the exploration of his work. -- David Sterritt, author of The Cinema of Clint Eastwood: Chronicles of America This first collection to showcase the curiously under-celebrated independent filmmaker reminds us why Hartley and his films matter. Rich in original insights about conditions of authorship into the crowdfunding era, textuality and intertextuality, film style, critical reception, the local in location production, indie genericity, performance, and more across the past 25 years, this book brings Hartley's vibrant work back to the fore of film studies. -- Mark Gallagher, University of Nottingham Steven Rybin is assistant professor of film studies in the English department at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is the author of Michael Mann: Crime Auteur and Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film (2011) and co-editor of Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema (2014).