The Book of Life

a film by

Hal Hartley (1998)

featuring Martin Donovan, PJ Harvey, and Thomas Jay Ryan

Cast

Martin Donovan – Jesus Christ
PJ Harvey – Magadalena (aka Mary Magdalen)
Thomas Jay Ryan – Satan
Dave Simonds – Dave
Miho Nikaido – Edie
DJ Mendel – the Almighty’s Lawyer
Katreen Hardt – Secretary to the Almighty’s Lawyer
James Urbaniak – James the Baptist

With an outrageous lightness of touch, lucidity, and intelligence, Hal Hartley re-imagines the apocalypse as foretold in Christian tradition. He asks the simple question: would Jesus really put up with this madness? Told with great energy, style, and curiosity, The Book of Life is a humanistic deconstruction of western values and a vigorous exercise in what was in 1998 the new digital media, an unrelenting kaleidoscope of fast moving images and heart-pounding music perfectly capturing a techno-driven, computerized, and postmodernist world. Thoughtful, respectful, funny, and very bold in its assertions, the film was cited by the New York Times as “…whimsical yet deeply serious…”

The Book of Life was commissioned by European TV as part of a series called “2000 Seen By” in which various filmmakers were asked to tell a story that takes place on the last day of the 20th century.

The film contains music from PJ Harvey, David Byrne, Yo La Tengo (who also appear in the film as a Salvation Army Band) and many others.

Hal Hartley, PJ Harvey, and Martin Donovan in the middle of Park Avenue, February 1998.

A FILM BY HAL HARTLEY – LA SEPT, ARTE, HAUT ET COURT AND TRUE FICTION PICTURES PRESENT  – THE BOOK OF LIFE  – STARRING MARTIN DONOVAN, PJ HARVEY, THOMAS JAY RYAN – PRODUCED BY HAUT ET COURT, PARIS  – PRODUCERS THIERRY CAGIANUT & MATTHEW MAYERS FOR TRUE FICTION PICTURES -  EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JEROME BROWNSTIEN – CAMAER & LIGHTING JIM DENAULT – SOUND JEFF PULLMAN – EDITOR STEVE HAMILTON – SOUND DESIGN DAVID PATERSON – ART DIRECTION ANDY BISCONTINI – ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS SIMON ARNAL SZLOVAK & CHELSEA FUHRER – WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY HAL HARTLEY

This was the 1998 “re-release”  by Echostatic Records of the original 1993 CD. This all paper fold-out presentation has the same artwork as the original jewel-box release but tinted blue. Forty untouched units are available autographed by Hal Hartley (on the back of the inside sleeve).

Many thanks to Janet Ridgeway of Echostatic Records for making these available!

01. Listen to this song at our website.
02. Walk Away TRUST
03. Opening Credits THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH
04. Always Something SIMPLE MEN
05. Cue #32 SIMPLE MEN
06. Good Intentions THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH
07. Cue #16 TRUST
08. Rue Des Jours SURVIVING DESIRE
09. Gonna Miss You SURVIVING DESIRE
10. Closing Credits THEORY OF ACHIEVEMENT
11. Some Kinda Fatigue SIMPLE MEN
12. Cue # 53/62 SIMPLE MEN
13. Mess With Me / End Credits TRUST
14. End Credits SIMPLE MEN

Walk Away, Gonna Miss You, & Mess With Me
Written by Hub Moore
Performed by The Great Outdoors

Always Something, Some Kinda Fatigue
Written by Georgia Hubley & Ira Kaplan
Performed by Yo La Tengo
Produced by Gene Holder
Courtesy Alias Records, Inc.

Good Intentions
Written by Bob and Greg Kendall
Performed by The Brothers Kendall
Produced by Joe Harvard
Published by Skegsongs 1989, BMI

Rue Des Jours
Written & Performed by Ether

Opening Credits The Unbelievable Truth
Written & Performed by James Coleman (aka Phylr)
Published by Cat & Mouse Music/Polygram, BMI

All other music written and performed by Hal Hartley (aka Ned Rifle) and produced by Jeffrey Taylor. Recorded and engineered by Baird Winham.

HENRY FOOL Original Soundtrack Album (CD) signed and numbered!!!

Who listens to CDs anymore anyway? Exactly. But they were really cool objects, especially when designed like miniature album covers for traditional vinyl records. And that’s just what Echostatic Records did for the 1998 North American release of the Henry Fool soundtrack. Beautifully designed by Allan Hill in collaboration with Hal and photographer Richard Sylvarnes, it was a plastic-free fold-out cover with an insert sleeve for the CD itself.

We’ve got 100 original copies of these CDs autographed and numbered by Hal.

1.        Henry Fool     2:01
2.        Fay’s Wedding     1:41
3.        Not Me     3:32
4.        The Local Thugs     2:03
5.        The Proposal     1:28
6.        Lazy     1:51
7.        Gigolo     3:19
8.        Listen to this song at our website.
9.        The Mother’s Death     3:24
10.      Vicky’s Deeper Feelings     2:05
11.      Often     3:42
12.      The Confession     2:28
13.      The Second World Of Donuts     2:16
14.      Topless Bar     1:51
15.      A Lost Song     1:13
16.      If I Could     3:41
17.      Run     2:58
18.      Henry Fool Reprise     1:28

A beautiful, full-color photo book of Hal Hartley’s films, published in Sweden, featuring scene and production stills from The Unbelievable Truth through the not-yet-released television pilot Meanwhile. We are selling 10 numbered copies (from the first print run of 300) signed by Hal Hartley.

Softcover, 220 x 315mm (8.6 x 12.4 inches)
100 pages, color offset
ISBN: 978-91-86269-23-4
Designer & Editor: Tony Cederteg
Assistant Designer: Annefrid Lundgren
Printed in Stockholm, Sweden by Wassberg + Skotte

1. Osnabrücker Jugendchor – Polorum Regina
2. PJ Harvey – The Faster I Breathe The Further I Go
3. Phylr – In A Hole
4. Takako Minekawa – 1.666666
5. Hub Moore – Two People
6. Yo La Tengo – Turtle Soup 1
7. Miss Crabtree – Waking Up
8. Joey Sweeney – My Name Is Rich
9. David Byrne – Machu Picchu
10. Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares – Mrs. Nedelija Became Famous
11. Ryful – King Of Boys
12. Super 5 Thor – Lincoln
13. Drazy Hoops – Far From The Sun
14. Yo La Tengo – Turtle Soup 2
15. PJ Harvey and P Comelade – Love Too Soon
16. Listen to this song at our website.
17. Osnabrücker Jugendchor – Laudamus Virginem

It’s been 20 years since the theatrical release of The Unbelievable Truth, in which Hal introduced audiences to the talents of Adrienne Shelly, Edie Falco, and Robert John Burke.

We’ve released a 20th Anniversary Edition DVD with lots of pictures and a never-before-seen doc which includes interviews with Hal and Adrienne Shelly (as far as we know, the only footage of them interviewed together) as well as Robert, Martin Donovan, and Thomas Jay Ryan. It is available exclusively on our website.

Approximately 90 minutes, 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, English audio, no subtitles.

Driven by music and choreography, Soon is a play first performed in Europe in 1998 and then again in the US in 2001. The music is available for the first time, recently re-worked into a compelling weave of brief spoken-word segments and songs constructed from the dialogues. Complete selection available to download from possiblefilms.com now. Individual tracks available everywhere else.

Track List:

01. Epiphany
02. Heaven On Earth
03. Listen to this song at our website.
04. Because
05. Angels Of The Lord
06. And Still Nothing Happens
07. Style
08. Go
09. Windows
10. Something Big
11. The Ways Of God
12. Doubt
13. God’s Army
14. School
15. I Have Been Sent Back
16. See How I Burn In My Love
17. Soon Reprise

Originally staged in Europe and the United States in 1998 and 2001 respectively, SOON is a fever-dream verbal avalanche about the joys, sorrows, and disasters of “creative religiosity.” Inspired by the Branch Davidian Conflict of 1993, the play explores the turbulent spiritual needs and the tortured reasoning of sectarian “end-time” Christians in America. Hilarious, moving, and sociologically astute, SOON “touched a naked nerve in contemporary American sensibility” (Western European Stages).

Perfect-bound paperback
85 pages
With an introduction by the author.

“I came to the subject as a writer curious about my country’s freedom of religion and its gun laws. But my study of the events at Waco led to a consideration of “revealed religion” in America generally. And, although the events at Waco were the catalyst, that catastrophe is not the play’s only focus. I have pared away the arcana specific to any one sect or another to focus on what all Christian “end time” denominations, share; namely, a belief that the world is miraculous and God is speaking to us in all sorts of ways.

I came to see that belief systems evolve. And – even more exciting – they evolve communally. Believers argue. This, I found, was really my subject; the sound of that argument, the way it moves, where it breaks, how it fixes itself.”

From the introduction.

Possible Films 2 comprises five new short films. An earlier collection, “Possible Films: Short Works by Hal Hartley 1994 – 2004” was released in 2004. This was a compilation of films Hartley had been commissioned to create at different times, in different places, and for different producers.

This new selection, Possible Films 2 (or “PF2”) is different in this regard and might usefully be called a “suite.” There are five separate films, but they were made practically at the same time over a few years, with a consistency of style and formal strategy that resembles something like a new album. The five films were made during when Hartley was living and working in Europe, and though clearly addressing different issues and initiated by separate concerns, they are linked by consistent preoccupations and formal creative strategies.

“Devotees of Hartley’s work are strongly encouraged to pick up this collection, along with anyone with an interest in modern experimental narrative.” —Pop Damage

“Exploring small ideas that couldn’t be fleshed out in feature form, Hartley creates intimate works that are honest and feel like they’re done by an artist doing it for the love of the craft, not looking for a quick buck. But would we think anything less from Hartley?” —Filmmaker Magazine

THE FILMS

A/MUSE (11:00)
An ambitious and idealistic young actress comes to Berlin to convince an American ex-pat filmmaker that she must be his next muse – the leading lady of his first great German film. Featuring: Christina Flick

IMPLIED HARMONIES (28:00)
Hartley’s conscientious assistant in Berlin receives weekly letters from her boss and sends him the books he needs as he struggles in Amsterdam to create the staging for Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s opera, “la Commedia”. Featuring: Louis Andriessen, Christina Zavalloni, Claron McFadden, Jeroen Willems, Reinbert de Leeuw, Asko/Shoenberg Ensemble, Jordana Maurer

THE APOLOGIES (13:00)
A commercially realistic but artistically conflicted playwright lends his Berlin apartment to a young actress friend so she can rehearse her drama school audition while he goes off to save his doomed production in New York. Featuring: Nikolai Kinski, Bettina Zimmermann, Ireen Kirsch.

ADVENTURE (20:00)
Hartley and his wife, Miho Nikaido, travel to Japan to see her parents and reflect on 12 years of marriage, her career ambitions, and the adventures of growing older. Featuring: Miho Nikaido, Hal Hartley, the Nikaido Family, various friends…

ACCOMPLICE (3:08)
An artist-criminal far from home asks his assistant to pirate a rare videotape before the German Post Office Authorities come to confiscate it. Featuring: Jordana Maurer, DJ Mendel (voice), Professor David Poeppel (voice), Jean-Luc Godard, David Bordwell (voice).

A comedy about obsessive love from the director Time Magazine called “the smartest new outlaw in the movies.” Surviving Desire is a bold and playful little tale about a handsome young college professor smitten with a beautiful young female student. It is a swift dissection of male infatuation that is as fierce as it is compassionate.

Newly digitally re-mastered with color correction supervised by the director, this early Hartley favorite stars Martin Donovan, Mary Ward, Matt Malloy, and Rebecca Nelson. North American customers will also receive Theory of Achievement & Ambition, two shorts directed by Hal in 1991.