As I've discussed, one of my challenges is determining what books and movies I bring with me to Sicily, especially on these early days (made more pressing because we're, apparently, going to be stuck in a tiny one bedroom for at least the first six months, but that's an aggravation for another day). Eventually, I'd love to have most of my books and movies, but I don't see that happening for a long time (probably more than I actually have left). Anyway, I definitely want to bring a few of my Hal Hartley DVDs, because he tends to not show up on the Criterion Channel very often, and, more importantly, because his films simply give me a lot of joy. The other night I watched one of my all-time favorites, Hartley's 1992 film Surviving Desire. It was released in the middle of his Long Island Trilogy (The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men), and shares many of the same themes - and actors - as those classic films. It also features an impromptu dance number, clearly an homage to Godard's Band of Outsiders, which sets the stage for the Hartley unexpected dance number in Simple Men. Martin Donovan plays a disinterested college professor (Jude) who falls for one of his students (Mary B. Ward as Sofie, clearly a play on the Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom), but, because it's Hartley, it transcends this well worn trope and ends up as a funny and thoughtful rumination on the folly of love and desire. As his friend Henry (Matt Malloy) warns him, "You won't survive her," to which Jude responds, "I don't think I want to." It was great to see Rebecca Nelson, who was so good in Trust, in a memorable role as a woman stopping people on the street to ask them to marry her (she may be the only sane person in the film). Surviving Desire includes one of my favorite opening scenes, where Jude keeps re-reading a paragraph of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. They spend weeks on it, leading to the students losing their minds throwing things at him, which results in him throwing things back at them (any student who ever had me in class would appreciate that). The last scene, with Sofie, working in a bookstore, quietly asking people obliviously moving around her if she can help them, is brilliant. Absolutely essential viewing.
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