I’m listening to a Sonic Youth-mix cassette-tape I made back around 1990. It reminds me of Hal Hartley, due to one singular sequence in Simple Men (1991) – which remains one of my favorite Hartley films. Kool Thang plays on the jukebox as first Elina Lowensohn, Dennis McCabe, and Martin Donovan dance to it at a semi-abandoned bar (we later see Karen Sillas and Robert Burke enter the frame as the song plays on). I met Hartley in 2000 when he came to the Denver premiere of Kimono. It was a simple introduction with no time for idle chatter. I remember this: he was thin, crazy tall (6′, 6″), soft-spoken, and very polite. It just goes to show that still waters still run deep, no matter how much Bubble Bath you pour into it.

Hartley has a very distinct approach to his craft, one that doesn’t always play well with a mainstream crowd – but it plays very well with me and the people I’ve screened his films to in Boulder. In my view, Hartley’s magic is that he makes low-budget independent films that are equal parts rough-and-tumble rock-and-roll (he does musical scores and is alluded to in other ways within his films as “Ned Rifle”) mixed in with his very own form of stylized and theatrical dialogue. His characters say exactly what they have on their mind rather than (as in real life) tempering their words to fit their audience’s expectations. How refreshing! (I think.) How maddening. (Think those who prefer narrative-driven dialogue that is the norm.) Consider this excerpt from the script from Simple Men:

EXT. ROAD/GAS STATION. MOMENTS LATER

KATE goes whizzing by at top angry speed.

MIKE is taking money from a young WOMAN customer in a car with a friend.

MIKE: Merci, madame.

(The young WOMEN giggle appreciatively as they drive away and MIKE grins mischievously as he pockets the money and walks over to… VIC and the SHERIFF. The SHERIFF is another tortured and confused man with a drinking problem and a disastrous love life. his is continually preoccupied.)

SHERIFF: Yeah. That’s it. That’s the motorcycle we’re looking for.

VIC: (To MIKE) See! What did I tell ya!

(The SHERIFF wanders back to his car… )

SHERIFF: If the guy comes back here, try to detain him.

VIC: Detain him?

SHERIFF: Yeah.

VIC: How?

SHERIFF: I don’t know! Offer him a cup of coffee of something.

VIC: And then what?

(The SHERIFF stops and turn, irritated.)

SHERIFF: Then, you know, call me! I’ll come and arrest him, I guess!

VIC: And in the meantime this French sociopath stabs me and Mike to death!

MIKE: Fuck that, man!

(The SHERIFF flies off the handle.)

SHERIFF: Oh, you want my job?

VIC: No we don’t want your job! We just want a little protection!

(The SHERIFF falls back in disbelief, lighting himself a cigarette.)

SHERIFF: Protection!

VIC: Yeah!

(The SHERIFF throws his hat to the ground.)

SHERIFF: Protection! Certainty! Assurance! Security!

VIC: (Lost) Well, yeah. That too, I guess.

SHERIFF: (In a fit) You want confidence! A pledge! Safety! Guarantee! Promises! Expectation! Consideration! Sincerity! Selflessness! Intimacy. Attraction. Gentleness. Understanding. An understanding without words. Dependence without resentment. (Begins trailing off.) Affection… To belong… Possession… Loss. (He stops finally and collapses. He sits on the cement base of the gas pumps and hangs his head. VIC looks on in horror. MIKE approaches and lays a hand on the man’s shoulder.)

MIKE: Hey, Sheriff, everything OK at home?

SHERIFF: (Weakly) Why do women exist?

(MIKE pats him on the back comfortingly.)

Here’s how it goes down on film:

Flashforward to 2006: I see Hartley’s spy-genre spoof, Fay Grim, at Sundance and love it. Alas, Magnolia has it slated as a HD-project that goes straight to cable, thus torpedoing my ability to bring a Boulder premiere of Parker Posey in her sexiest role ever. Fay Grim had Hartley’s fingerprints all over it, but it also had something entirely new: inspired wardrobe that seductively turns the whole film into a fetishistic object the likes of which have not been seen since Emma Peel in The Avengers.

Flashforward again, this time to 2009: In January I heard Ted Hope, the prolific producer behind many independent films (including Simple Men), give a long speech. He was addressing the Sundance Art House Project Convergence – a group of art-house exhibitors assembling before the film festival. He had a lot of interesting things to say and he went on for about a half-hour. I would have loved to have heard Hal Hartley’s version of that same speech. But to hear Hartley’s voice again, it looks like I’ll have to wait until next year when Moving the Arts is slated for release.