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SURVIVING DESIRE (1991, 53 min) is a comedy about obsessive love from the director Time Magazine called ""the smartest new outlaw in the movies."" SURVIVING DESIRE is a bold and playful little tale about a handsome young college professor smitten with a beautiful young female student. It is a swift dissection of male infatuation that is as fierce as it is compassionate. Special Features: THEORY OF ACHIEVEMENT (1991, 17 min) and AMBITION (1991, 9 min) are short story-essays about the everyday perils of finding one's place in the world; madefor the most partwith the filmmaker's actual friends as he himself negotiated the bewildering pathways of success and recognition. UPON REFLECTION: SURVIVING DESIRE (2005, 11 min) is part of a collection of interview films with Hartley and his collaborators. It includes candid talks with Hartley, producer Ted Hope, and actor Martin Donovan. Diabolically inventive and hilariously non-naturalistic, these films led THE NEW YORK TIMES to admit Hartley is ""one of the most industrious and least compromising young artists in America.
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SURVIVING DESIRE was made in 1991 for TV by Hal Hartley, inbetween TRUST and SIMPLE MEN. Despite it's short length, this is classic Hartley, overflowing with the witty dialogue, slightly off-kilter performances and surreal touches that brought him to prominence in the early nineties.
Martin Donovan (who just pips Robert John Burke as the greatest Hartley leading man) is perfect as Jude, a lecturer in literature who is obsessed with a passage from Dostoevsky's THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV The Brothers Karamazov (Penguin Classics)(if you haven't already, please read this book, you may become equally obsessed!), much to the annoyance of his students who hurl abuse at him and complain they aren't learning anything. One student seems to be paying attention though... beautiful young Sofie played brilliantly by Mary Ward. Jude becomes infatuated with Sofie and so begins an ill-fated romance...
This film contains some of Hartley's best dialogue, the exchanges between Donovan and Matt Malloy, who plays his long -suffering friend, being a prime example. The script never becomes too talky, despite it's literary allusions, and the impromptu silent street dance, performed by Donovan and two guys who just happen to be passing, is a wonderfully unexpected highlight. Also on this disc are two other Hartley short films, AMBITION and THEORY OF ACHIEVEMENT. Both are brief but packed full of ideas and sparkling dialogue. THEORY in particular is a real gem, featuring many Hartley regulars including Elina Lowensohn in her first appearance for Hal.
Hal Hartley is an original yet sorely underrated talent and it's sad to see many of his films unavailable, particularly on region 2. Let's hope Artificial Eye follow up their excellent boxset The Hal Hartley Collection (Trust / Henry Fool / The Girl From Monday) [DVD] with a second volume. My suggestion would be AMATEUR / SIMPLE MEN / THE BOOK OF LIFE. AMATEUR in particular is in my opinion his best film, and needs rereleasing NOW! Until that glorious day, buy SURVIVING DESIRE and prepare to become obsessed!
Martin Donovan (who just pips Robert John Burke as the greatest Hartley leading man) is perfect as Jude, a lecturer in literature who is obsessed with a passage from Dostoevsky's THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV The Brothers Karamazov (Penguin Classics)(if you haven't already, please read this book, you may become equally obsessed!), much to the annoyance of his students who hurl abuse at him and complain they aren't learning anything. One student seems to be paying attention though... beautiful young Sofie played brilliantly by Mary Ward. Jude becomes infatuated with Sofie and so begins an ill-fated romance...
This film contains some of Hartley's best dialogue, the exchanges between Donovan and Matt Malloy, who plays his long -suffering friend, being a prime example. The script never becomes too talky, despite it's literary allusions, and the impromptu silent street dance, performed by Donovan and two guys who just happen to be passing, is a wonderfully unexpected highlight. Also on this disc are two other Hartley short films, AMBITION and THEORY OF ACHIEVEMENT. Both are brief but packed full of ideas and sparkling dialogue. THEORY in particular is a real gem, featuring many Hartley regulars including Elina Lowensohn in her first appearance for Hal.
Hal Hartley is an original yet sorely underrated talent and it's sad to see many of his films unavailable, particularly on region 2. Let's hope Artificial Eye follow up their excellent boxset The Hal Hartley Collection (Trust / Henry Fool / The Girl From Monday) [DVD] with a second volume. My suggestion would be AMATEUR / SIMPLE MEN / THE BOOK OF LIFE. AMATEUR in particular is in my opinion his best film, and needs rereleasing NOW! Until that glorious day, buy SURVIVING DESIRE and prepare to become obsessed!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Hartley's Best
5 Dec 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase
I believe you are sincere and good at heart...
With these words we enter Hartley's single best film. Finally this gem is again available on DVD. Many thanks to those that rereleased it (now how about Trust and Flirt?)
Hartley is at his best working in short films. This piece is less than an hour long, long enough to develop a few characters and a story, but not too long to contain any extraneous words or people. The limits of time force him to use every line, every character, every shot, every expression, for maximum effect. He succeeds here brilliantly. There is nothing out of place, everything contributes and builds to the last poignant scenes.
Martin Donovan, a Hartley regular, plays an assistant professor named Jude grappling with the meaning of love as expressed in literature and smitten with a student named Sophia (Mary Ward, who seems to have done very little else other than this film). His friend Henry (played by Matt Malloy) is an ABD Theology grad student who understands everything, except how to live on his own. Jude, with his PhD and wisdom, is totally lost as things progress, and the wise advice he receives from Henry and a worldly bartender (whose six lines are exceptionally insightful) offers little help. Sophia floats in and out of this world, no passive target for Jude, but at the same time not quite the all knowing adult she believes herself to be.
There are some wondeful individual scenes. The opening shots, interspersed with the credits, are excellent. Jude and Henry's conversations are always insightful, in the Student Union Hall, on a warehouse loading dock, in a bar, and in Jude's apartment. I have already mentioned the scene with Jude and the bartender awaiting Sophia. Jude's last lecture to his class is good, as is Jude's critique of the short story that Sophia is working on through the movie.
This movie is funny, it is enjoyable, and it will actually leave you thinking about the role of love, desire, literature, and advice. For myself, I ponder Dostoevsky almost every day, and actually read Brothers Karamazov after seeing this film.
If you know Hal Hartley you will not be disappointed. If you do not know Hartley's work this one is short and linear enough that you can get the cadence of his dialog, the philosophical puns, and the character crises without the confusion which can creep into his longer pieces. I cannot recommend this film enough.
With these words we enter Hartley's single best film. Finally this gem is again available on DVD. Many thanks to those that rereleased it (now how about Trust and Flirt?)
Hartley is at his best working in short films. This piece is less than an hour long, long enough to develop a few characters and a story, but not too long to contain any extraneous words or people. The limits of time force him to use every line, every character, every shot, every expression, for maximum effect. He succeeds here brilliantly. There is nothing out of place, everything contributes and builds to the last poignant scenes.
Martin Donovan, a Hartley regular, plays an assistant professor named Jude grappling with the meaning of love as expressed in literature and smitten with a student named Sophia (Mary Ward, who seems to have done very little else other than this film). His friend Henry (played by Matt Malloy) is an ABD Theology grad student who understands everything, except how to live on his own. Jude, with his PhD and wisdom, is totally lost as things progress, and the wise advice he receives from Henry and a worldly bartender (whose six lines are exceptionally insightful) offers little help. Sophia floats in and out of this world, no passive target for Jude, but at the same time not quite the all knowing adult she believes herself to be.
There are some wondeful individual scenes. The opening shots, interspersed with the credits, are excellent. Jude and Henry's conversations are always insightful, in the Student Union Hall, on a warehouse loading dock, in a bar, and in Jude's apartment. I have already mentioned the scene with Jude and the bartender awaiting Sophia. Jude's last lecture to his class is good, as is Jude's critique of the short story that Sophia is working on through the movie.
This movie is funny, it is enjoyable, and it will actually leave you thinking about the role of love, desire, literature, and advice. For myself, I ponder Dostoevsky almost every day, and actually read Brothers Karamazov after seeing this film.
If you know Hal Hartley you will not be disappointed. If you do not know Hartley's work this one is short and linear enough that you can get the cadence of his dialog, the philosophical puns, and the character crises without the confusion which can creep into his longer pieces. I cannot recommend this film enough.
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