Recent diary (48)
Hal Hartley’s epic oral history: The “Henry Fool” trilogy, Parker Posey and the real sage of ’90s indie film
Here, Hartley, longtime partners (Donovan, Posey), key "Henry Fool" figures (Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak) and newcomer Aubrey Plaza discuss the making of a classic American cinema trilogy.
"You can't put a fence around a man's soul."
The East Village of Manhattan in the mid 1980s was teeming with rebel artists in bands, performance troupes. Hartley, just out of college (SUNY Purchase, where Burke, Falco, and Posey also went), opted to cede the streets to the likes of Jim Jarmusch and take the LIRR home instead to shoot his first films.
HAL HARTLEY: I was living in New York City but I went back to Lindenhurst often to see my family and friends. I knew I had a good base there. That was an environment that I could control. It was a practical thing. also remember feeling at that time the American suburbs and people who rub up against the status quo the wrong way there wasn't anybody making movies like that. Stories about outsiders in the suburbs were not really being made. I thought 'Well, perhaps that's something I can bring to this?' I felt very much connected to the Island.
Hartley put together "The Unbelievable Truth" budget (about $60,000 dollars) and set about casting Burke as an ex con, and discovering via a headshot, the petite, blonde Shelly who would play Audry, Burke's love interest, a high school student obsessed with the bomb ("Why are you two concerned about my college education? The world is going to blow up any day now," she asks her hapless parents).
HAL HARTLEY: A lot of friends around me were saying 'We don't think this is right. We think you're making a mistake with this girl.' I said, 'I don't think so. I know she's shorter than a model. But I think there's something really special about her look and she's funny in a way that she might not even be aware of yet. She was very young.