True Fiction Pictures & Possible Films
to be published this fall

In October 2008, True Fiction Pictures & Possible Films - Hal Hartley in conversation with Kenneth Kaleta will be published in English by Soft Skull Press. The book, which appeared originally in Polish in 2007, is a series of discussions Hartley had with film writer and educator, Kenneth Kaleta, throughout 1999 and then again in 2005. It is heavily illustrated with many previously unpublished photos of Hartley and his collaborators at work since the late eighties.

Julie Christie honored in Munich

On June 27 in Munich, on behalf of the Munich International Film Festival, Hal presented actress Julie Christie with the festival's CineMerit Award, recognizing her excellent and on-going achievements in cinema. Christie first met Hartley when she performed in his film, No Such Thing (2001), which is where she also met the brilliant Sarah Polley who directed the actress in Away From Her (2006), for which Christie received an Oscar nomination.

Hal Hartley's award presentation speech,
June 27, 2008, Munich

Good evening. Thank you.

I'm very happy to have been asked to say a few words upon the occasion of the Munich Film Festival's presentation of its CineMerit Award to Julie Christie.

I was not asked to do so because I am some sort of expert on her career. I am not. We worked together once and very briefly and we became friends.

And, although key points in my own development as a filmmaker coincided with the discovery of certain films Julie had decided to be in - for instance: Don't Look Now, by Nicolas Roeg, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, by Robert Altman, The Gold Diggers, by Sally Potter - the few words I have to say tonight are in fact a cleaned up version of what I told my wife, Miho, when she wanted to know more about our fascinating new friend from England.

My impression of Julie Christie was never very unusual, I think; as with many people, to me, she seemed important and encouraging simply for existing in the motion picture business - she seemed to belong there, in some sense to define it at its best, but also to appear as though she were just passing through. She telegraphed a healthy disregard for the supposedly awesome significance of "The Movies." She continues to provide an example of integrity, imagination, commonsense, and (critically) a sense of humor, about herself and the entertainment industry.

Through the roles she has played, she has allowed herself to be glamorous, vulgar, mysterious, funny, charming, argumentative, sexy, helpless, strict, and even unapproachable. And she always does this on her own terms.

And this really does make - and has always made - Julie Christie "Not Just Another Beautiful Actress."

Even a random selection of her films will show she is a committed and imaginative actor. But she also continues to display a certain attitude to the world which is not only genuinely attractive but consistent over such a wide variety of roles. If I may say so, this is evidence of a skillful and intuitive command of everything about herself - her critical intelligence, creative instinct, curiosity, even her prejudices, her fears, her insecurities - they all come to bear on these obviously special performances which never seem forced, arbitrary, or by-the-book.

The course of her career has been determined by the things that interest her and not by the passing trends and preoccupations of an industry geared to the requirements of mass culture. However - and this is important - she has penetrated that mass culture. She has become a representative personality, an inspiration towards a certain ideal of self-possession and relevant engagement with the issues of our time.

As things go, this is a rare and important thing.

So, Julie, thank you for allowing us to thank you for your efforts.

Personally, but not unrelated, I'm glad to know you. Your friendship and conversation demands attention, challenges easy assumptions, and is often just downright hilarious. It's a kind of inheritance I am quite protective of; and one I hope to be able to pass on, in some manner, following your example, to another generation.

Thanks.

La Commedia

Louis Andriessen's La Commedia, staged by Hal Hartley, premiered on June 12 in Amsterdam. The Los Angeles Times called "this profoundly moving, if slyly unsentimental, meditation on life, love and death a great opera."

Click here to view the DNO trailer. Click here to jump to the interview.