Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director,
screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the
American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best
known for his films The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur
and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat
characters quoting philosophical dialogue.His films provided a career
launch for a number of actors, including Adrienne Shelly (who would
later direct her only film, the 2007 comedy-drama Waitress), Edie
Falco (Nurse Jackie), James Urbaniak (American Splendor), Martin
Donovan, Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn. Hartley frequently scores
his own films using his pseudonym Ned Rifle, and his soundtracks
regularly feature music by indie rock acts Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo
and PJ Harvey.Hartley was born in Lindenhurst in southern Long Island,
New York, the son of an ironworker. Hartley had an early interest in
painting and attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where
he studied art and developed an interest in filmmaking. In 1980, he
was accepted to the filmmaking program at the State University of New
York at Purchase in New York, where he met a core group of technicians
and actors who would go on to work with him on his feature films,
including his regular cinematographer Michael Spiller.Hartley shot his
first feature film, The Unbelievable Truth, in 1988. Made on a
shoestring budget and filmed in his native Long Island, it was an
unconventional love story about a suburban Long Island teenager
(played by Adrienne Shelly, a soon-to-be Hartley regular) falling in
love with a handsome mechanic with a criminal past (Robert John Burke,
also a soon-to-be Hartley regular). The screenplay featured what have
become Hartley's trademarks â€" deadpan humour, offbeat, stilted,
pause-filled dialogue, and characters posing philosophical questions
about the meaning of life, combined with a degree of stylization in
acting, choreography and camera movement. The film received positive
reviews and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990
Sundance Film Festival, establishing Hartley as a distinctive new
talent in the burgeoning independent filmmaking movement.
screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the
American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best
known for his films The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur
and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat
characters quoting philosophical dialogue.His films provided a career
launch for a number of actors, including Adrienne Shelly (who would
later direct her only film, the 2007 comedy-drama Waitress), Edie
Falco (Nurse Jackie), James Urbaniak (American Splendor), Martin
Donovan, Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn. Hartley frequently scores
his own films using his pseudonym Ned Rifle, and his soundtracks
regularly feature music by indie rock acts Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo
and PJ Harvey.Hartley was born in Lindenhurst in southern Long Island,
New York, the son of an ironworker. Hartley had an early interest in
painting and attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where
he studied art and developed an interest in filmmaking. In 1980, he
was accepted to the filmmaking program at the State University of New
York at Purchase in New York, where he met a core group of technicians
and actors who would go on to work with him on his feature films,
including his regular cinematographer Michael Spiller.Hartley shot his
first feature film, The Unbelievable Truth, in 1988. Made on a
shoestring budget and filmed in his native Long Island, it was an
unconventional love story about a suburban Long Island teenager
(played by Adrienne Shelly, a soon-to-be Hartley regular) falling in
love with a handsome mechanic with a criminal past (Robert John Burke,
also a soon-to-be Hartley regular). The screenplay featured what have
become Hartley's trademarks â€" deadpan humour, offbeat, stilted,
pause-filled dialogue, and characters posing philosophical questions
about the meaning of life, combined with a degree of stylization in
acting, choreography and camera movement. The film received positive
reviews and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990
Sundance Film Festival, establishing Hartley as a distinctive new
talent in the burgeoning independent filmmaking movement.
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