Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. He is best known for his films Trust, Amateur and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue.His films provided a career launch for a number of actors, including Adrienne Shelly, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn. Hartley frequently scores his own films using his pseudonym Ned Rifle, and his soundtracks regularly feature music by indie rock acts Yo La Tengo and PJ Harvey.
Frequently casts 'Martin Donovan', Parker Posey, 'Robert John Burke', Karen Sillas, and 'James Urbanick'.
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Lowkey, deadpan comedy
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The comedy and drama of Hartley's films often revolves around men and women who come into conflict with societal norms. He is famous for a characteristic style which includes unconventional cinematic language, un-naturalistic dialogue, and deliberate movement.
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Flirt is some of the best work I've ever done. It sort of ruined my career.
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My writing and filmmaking provided a platform for a group of us to begin our careers. We all would have begun our careers anyway, but we might not have had as much fun.
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I think there is such a thing as an independent audience, and this is more important even than independent filmmakers.
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I hum tunes to myself while I walk. This is why I don't have a driver's license. Walking is a big part of my creative work. And I once got into a car accident because I was thinking about music.
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It was the Werner Herzog of 1977 that got me into filmmaking. Then as time went on I discovered Robert Altman, Allan Rudolf, Wim Wenders, Godard, etc. Many others. But for the most part, they were not corporately manufactured entertainment.
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'Indie' has been used to describe so many things it's become meaningless. I work the way I work probably because of my personality. I like making a lot of work without a lot of fanfare, and I like to experiment.
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The budget is the aesthetic.
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Fact
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Retrospective at the 7th New Horizons Film Festival (2007).
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Has 2 sons.
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Son or Harold and Eileen Hartley.
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The most repeatedly read authors in his library are Robert Musil (particularly, The Man Without Qualities), Montaigne (the essays), Beckett (the novels), Moliere, Joseph Roth, and Thomas Hardy.
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Hartley, who composes the music for his films (formerly under the pseudonym Ned Rifle), will be releasing his first non-soundtrack album in 2012.
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Hartley paid for college by working alongside his father, uncles, cousins, and brothers as an apprentice steelworker on construction sites in New York City.
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Some of Hartley's favorite films include Marat/Sade (1967, dir. Peter Brook), The Thin Red Line (1998, dir. Terrence Malick), A Hard Day's Night (1964, dir. Richard Lester), and Prénom Carmen (1983, dir. Jean-Luc Godard).
$19 Million
