Surviving Desire (1992)

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1. 

   jlfitz

   https://adult.noodlemagazine.com/watch/-61861921_456239625 2 years 11 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   At 55 minutes, it's not quite feature length, but Surviving Desire is so full, it feels like it is. When Hal Hartley uses movie tropes - like musical/dance numbers in this - it's always so WEIRD. We recognize the movie grammar, but it's like a language you know in an unfamiliar accent. Martin Donovan is a Russian literature professor stuck on a single paragraph and on a beautiful student, in a universe where everyone speaks as if they were writing a paper dissecting life, themselves and each other in academic terms. I can see why people compare Hartley to Goddard, but I never feel the French experimentalist gives his characters the same depth of emotion Hartley does. Yes, they speak in a way that is unnatural and theatrical, but the actors are more than voicing the text, they're living and believing it. Surviving Desire is ultimately about the need to be acknowledged, and there are many scenes, memorable by their oddity, that speak to this, like Mary Ward in the book shop and Rebecca Nelson as a madwoman asking passersby to marry her. Donovan is thus a man who stands in front of a group for a living, and still yearns to be noticed, but existential malaise prevents anyone from being noticed, since the other (and even the self) is unknowable. 7 months 2 weeks ago

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