Hal Hartley 

US
 

Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) arrives out of nowhere to forever change the life of Simon Grim (James Urbaniak), an unassuming garbage man who supports his depressed mother (Maria Porter) and his oversexed sister (Parker Posey). Fool, a self-styled intellectual whose frequent pronouncements on the state of man simultaneously ring true and false, brings profound changes to the lives of this dysfunctional family.

Like other Hartley films, including his previous Cannes Competition film, Simple Men, and his Quinzaine feature, Amateur, Henry Fool is both engaging and distancing, drawing the viewer into its world while frustrating expectations.

"To have your expectations frustrated," the director told Moving Pictures, "is part of being educated... I'm not trying to be pushy or didactic, but I want to provide unexpected developments."

Hartley's unique sensibility has sometimes been termed quirky, ironic and deadpan, but these are not terms that he chooses to apply to himself.

"I know what they are referring to," he says of the critics. "But I look at it as presenting events without an obvious interpretation. What could be a simple and clean joke, I try to isolate that obvious give-away and keep that out."

On the other hand, Hartley contends that all he really wants to do is tell a story. "That's what we do," he said, referring to filmmakers. "We tell stories. I try to make you forget that you're watching a movie."

The frustrating of expectations is part of Hartley's means of drawing his audiences into a film. "When you're in a theatre," he says, "you can almost feel that moment when the audience forgets that it is watching a film. It comes when a character does something or is about to do something that seems out of character. People ask themselves 'Will he do that? Would I do that?' Then they are completely into the film."

In the case of Henry Fool, the underlying motivation of events appears to be integrity. Both Fool and garbage man Simon find their way through events in the film by displaying a strong sense of integrity, even if such integrity does not always fall within the 'normal' boundaries of behaviour. Within the realm of Fool's existence, untoward behaviour can be considered integrity. Simon, on the other hand, does not forget his friend Henry as his literary star rises, presenting Henry's work to the publisher who has exploited Simon and made him an internationally renowned and wealthy poet.

"I wanted to do a story about my culture," Hartley explained. "I wanted to create a broad but meaningful sketch of our culture and some of its current preoccupations, to leave a fossil of a particular time and place in America."

It is a culture that does not always present a pretty picture of itself. Simon's poetry is ruthlessly rejected by a Manhattan literary editor who ultimately changes his opinion when a guerrilla movement among donut shop teenagers makes Simon a media figure. The blatant commercialism of the editor, however, does not bother Hartley.

"He doesn't compromise his integrity," said Hartley. "He says exactly why he's there. He says, 'It's growing on me. I'm spending more time with the poem.' But it was clear, he says, in so many words. 'I'm not an idiot. This can make a lot of money.'"

There is also a character who begins the film as something of a thug, and then, in an apparent quest to feel that he can make a difference, segues into political activity on the part of a particular candidate.

"He's too immature to understand what politics are," Hartley said. "And when the guy loses, he becomes cynical and bitter."

Henry Fool is something of an anomaly for a Competition film, given that it has already been screened at film festivals around America, including last year's Toronto Fest. Some feel that its inclusion here stems from Gilles Jacob's own fascination with Hartley's work and the public success of his films in this country.

"It's not just France," Hartley told Moving Pictures with a shy smile, "It's Germany, Australia... just about everywhere they do better than they do [in the US]." Jeff Sipe