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Hal Hartley, Filmmaker
By
Gothamist Staff
Published Jun 28, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Gothamist Staff
Published Jun 28, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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The Basics
Age and occupation. How long have you lived here, where did you come from, and where do you live now?
44. Filmmaker. I have lived in New York City since graduating from college in 1984.
Three from Chris Gage
1. Unfortunately, even for an impossibly hip New Yorker, it's pretty difficult to see your movies in the theater. Is there any chance of your latest, "The Girl from Monday," getting a wider, deserved release?
We hope for the best. Girl From Monday won't be ready for release until the start of 2005. But we hope to make the festival circuit with it in the fall. Sometimes a wider release isn't good for a film.
2. Why did you change the title of your production company from True Fiction Pictures to Possible Films? There's seems to be a deep significance there that I'm unable to figure out, something about turning toward more vagueness.
I think "possible films" denotes an ambition to try more new things -- to experiment. Also, there were practical reasons for changing the company -- my business partner retired and I felt the need for a re-structured and simplified company. But True Fiction Pictures certainly described my over-riding ambition at the start of my career -- I had this very specific idea about what fiction was -- and what fiction rendered through motion pictures could be. A decade of that work, however, brought me finally to the notion of possible films. It was time to swim in new waters.
3. Does New York get the films it deserves? If so, what'd we collectively do to deserve the Roland Emmerich crap-a-thon "Day After Tomorrow"?
My old business partner, Jerry Brownstein, used to say: "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate." Perhaps New York negotiates what it deserves. But the thing about movies is you don't have to go to them. The world has a lot of crap in it. I try not to take it personally.
Proust-Krucoff Questionnaire
Please share a personal (and hopefully interesting) NYC taxi story.
An old Chinese woman taxi driver explaining why legalized prostitution would be good for the city.
Time travel question: What era, day or event in New York's history would you like to re-live?
I would like to be my current age in the mid to late seventies. I came to New York a number of times then but I was too young to know what was happening.
Best celebrity sighting in New York, or personal experience with one if you're that type.
Being an apprentice iron-worker one summer in the early eighties and eating my lunch on the sidewalk beside my older brother. Andy Warhol comes around the corner, stops and checks the time on his watch, and moves on.
Where do you summer?
In my apartment.
What was your best dining experience in NYC?
Shabu-Shabu with friends at our own table overlooking downtown on a summer night a few years ago.
If you could change one thing about New York, what would it be?
Car alarms would be outlawed.
Hal Hartley's films include "No Such Thing" (2002), "The Book of Life" (1998), "Amateur" (1994) and "Trust" (1990). He also makes music.
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Krucoff Questionnaire
movies
Music
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Roland Emmerich
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The Basics
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