Wednesday, November 6 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Tickets: $10 at the door
Directed by Hal Hartley • 1992
In Gen X auteur Hal Hartley’s Simple Men, the men are indeed simple, but not entirely unsuccessful ($650,000 in stolen computer parts isn’t nothing). The third entry in his Long Island Trilogy, the film is filled with Hartley’s idiosyncratic humor and heart — it is about family, and it is about romance. In the film, two brothers (one lands a scholarship and the other lands on the frontpage of the newspaper) go on a road trip to find their deadbeat father, an infamous domestic terrorist. On the way they meet beautiful women, talk God and feminism, have an impromptu dance party, and reconnect. Hartley’s expressively inscrutable protagonists tease out their feelings in casual yet revealing conversations; small talk on big issues. As feminist scholar bell hooks wrote, “More than any other contemporary film-maker [Hartley] turns the camera on to masculinity. He lets us see aspects of maleness from the perspective of male abjection and vulnerability.” Hartley’s men may be goofy, but they are hardly unfeeling; their romantic traumas and disappointments consume their minds and direct their conversations. They are confused. On the other hand, Hartley’s odd, independent, and uncontrollable women don’t answer to anyone; they are too busy tearing up the dance floor. Simple Men is a remarkably fun time that also strips his ideas down to their basics, exposing their profundity. “Falling in love is like sticking an ice pick in your forehead, but we keep doing it. We hurl ourselves into the cauldron of passion. The bottomless pit of desire.” (RIN)
105 min • True Fiction Pictures • 35mm from Chicago FIlm Society collections, gift of David Bordwell
Preceded by: Hal Hartley trailer reel – 10 min – 35mm
NEXT UP: Moonlight and Pretzels on Wednesday, November 13 at NEIU
