Desert Hearts. (18.)
Directed by Donna Deitch. 1986
Starring Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Dean Butler, Alex McArthur, Gwen Welles, Jeffrey Tambor. 89 mins. Avaialble of Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
Lesbianism was a big deal in the mid-80s. So much so that a film about it was seen as something bold and challenging when in truth it is something simple and truthful, a period love story, a moment in time captured and preserved. It's really no big deal, and that's much of its charm.
It's Reno in 1959, a New York college professor Vivian Bell (Shaver) turns up to finalise a divorce, just a year or two before Marilyn would arrive in town for the same reason. Monroe would stay and find a misfit support group; Vivian stays on a ranch and slowly finds comfort among a group of women there, as well as love with the younger Cay (Charbonneau.)
It is almost cliched. The uptight academic being loosened up by the free spirit. Bell is haughty and aloof but Shaver, looking and sounding like Sally Kellerman, exudes husky sexuality. All of it though remains dormant behind formidable defensive capabilities that are intent on keeping it in place. Opposite her Charbonneau seems a much less assured screen performer than Shaver, but that works for the film.
The film is a little ramshackle, a little bit wayward and uneven. The script doesn't always seem to be giving us the information it should be about these characters; sometimes it seems like a couple of scenes have been skipped. But there are also some expertly staged moments, and the sense of place and period is beautifully caught. It all seems lived-in, comfortable with its limitations.
Now this film about a special point in time is itself thought of as a special point in time, the first mainstream lesbian movie. The press release that comes with it says that it is a landmark film in Queer Cinema, which I instinctively baulk at because it seems to suggest that it something niche and exclusive, not for the likes of me with my humdrum heterosexuality. Desert Hearts doesn't seem queer to me at all, it's a love story that is honest and real and straight.
Extras
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring director Donna Deitch
Directed by Donna Deitch. 1986
Starring Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Dean Butler, Alex McArthur, Gwen Welles, Jeffrey Tambor. 89 mins. Avaialble of Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
Lesbianism was a big deal in the mid-80s. So much so that a film about it was seen as something bold and challenging when in truth it is something simple and truthful, a period love story, a moment in time captured and preserved. It's really no big deal, and that's much of its charm.
It's Reno in 1959, a New York college professor Vivian Bell (Shaver) turns up to finalise a divorce, just a year or two before Marilyn would arrive in town for the same reason. Monroe would stay and find a misfit support group; Vivian stays on a ranch and slowly finds comfort among a group of women there, as well as love with the younger Cay (Charbonneau.)
It is almost cliched. The uptight academic being loosened up by the free spirit. Bell is haughty and aloof but Shaver, looking and sounding like Sally Kellerman, exudes husky sexuality. All of it though remains dormant behind formidable defensive capabilities that are intent on keeping it in place. Opposite her Charbonneau seems a much less assured screen performer than Shaver, but that works for the film.
The film is a little ramshackle, a little bit wayward and uneven. The script doesn't always seem to be giving us the information it should be about these characters; sometimes it seems like a couple of scenes have been skipped. But there are also some expertly staged moments, and the sense of place and period is beautifully caught. It all seems lived-in, comfortable with its limitations.
Now this film about a special point in time is itself thought of as a special point in time, the first mainstream lesbian movie. The press release that comes with it says that it is a landmark film in Queer Cinema, which I instinctively baulk at because it seems to suggest that it something niche and exclusive, not for the likes of me with my humdrum heterosexuality. Desert Hearts doesn't seem queer to me at all, it's a love story that is honest and real and straight.
Extras
Audio commentary from 2007 featuring director Donna Deitch
- New conversation between Deitch and actor Jane Lynch
- New interviews with actors Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau
- Remembering Reno, a new program featuring Deitch, Elswit, and production designer Jeannine Oppewall
- Excerpt from Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule, a 1994 documentary about the author of Desert of the Heart, the 1964 novel on which the film is based
- PLUS: An essay by critic B. Ruby Rich
