LOADING
Directed by Donna Deitch | 91 minutes | M | 40th Anniversary |
3:45pm Saturday, 28 June | static vision HQ
Buy Tickets ($17.50/$15) | Buy Day Pass ($65/$55)
IN 1959, VIVIAN BELL CAME TO RENO, NEVADA FOR A QUICK DIVORCE. OF ALL THE PEOPLE SHE MET THERE, THE ONE WHO SURPRISED HER THE MOST WAS HERSELF.
Donna Deitch’s swooning and sensual first narrative feature, Desert Hearts was groundbreaking upon its release in 1985: a love story about two women, made entirely independently, on a shoestring budget, by a woman. In this 1959-set film, adapted from a beloved novel by Jane Rule, straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to file for divorce but winds up catching the eye of someone new, the free-spirited young Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), touching off a slow seduction that unfolds against a breathtaking desert landscape. With undeniable chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by Robert Elswit, Desert Hearts beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candour.
SIMILAR: Carol, Brokeback Mountain, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Bound
“If the road in films and novels was always an invitation to big adventure for men, and romance usually the only excitement available to women, then Deitch’s feat is to combine the two and make them work as one.” - B. Ruby Rich
“I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying” - Patsy Cline
Country: United States
Year: 1985
Language: English