Amateur
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chuck Montgomery, Damian Young, Elina Löwensohn, Isabelle Huppert, Martin Donovan (II)DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Amateur
Movie Review: Best Hartley Ever
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my favorite Hal Hartley film, several of the scenes do not fail to bring a tear to my eye or give me a feeling of frisson and I saw it for the first time in 1995. I think that should say it all.Purist Hartley fans seem to believe that Trust is the quintessential Hartley, and while I agree that the film is great, Amateur has a much more complicated plot and explores more complicated issues.
The film is all about ontology. What is the nature of being? Can one change? What is memory? Is there an essential nature to existence or is existence mutable depending on experience?
Don't think, however, this is some weird indie/foreign flick heavy on the meaning. Hartley manages to pose all of the above questions within a film that is quirky and funny and deadpan and sad and wonderful all at the same time.
Yes, I know this man.
Summary of Amateur
A crackpot ex-nun who writes pornographic short stories crosses paths with an amnesiac wandering the streets of New York City. When they set out to uncover his identity, they come face to face with his unsavory past ? including a vengeful porno actress and ruthless corporate assassins hot on their trail.Filmmaker Hal Hartley is something of an acquired taste. But if you can get on his oddball, deadpan wavelength, you can't help but enjoy his films--and this is one of his best. Isabelle Huppert plays a former nun who now works as a pornographer. She connects with Martin Donovan, playing a fellow who's lost his memory, but whose past may contain particularly nasty stuff. As they look for a way to get away from that past (which includes a couple of hit men who look like stockbrokers), the two discuss the meaning of their lives in hilariously vague ways. Hartley's dialogue is tart and concise, filled with acidic but low-key humor. And Donovan, who also starred in the director's equally good Trust, has just the right downbeat affect to give the film an unusual spin. --Marshall Fine
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