The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley)

[Feego]

Hal Hartley's debut feature The Unbelievable Truth has just been re-released on Region 1 DVD exclusively through Hartley's website, Possible Films. It's being touted as a 20th anniversary edition 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 [John Burke], Martin Donovan, and Thomas Jay Ryan." It's going for $35.99.

Does anyone have the British DVD or know if it's a worthy release? I love this movie, but I don't know that I'm willing to shell out that much money for it.

The website also mentions that the reason Trust is not available on R1 DVD is "because the home video rights are currently held by a movie studio with no interest in distributing it." They do go on to recommend the British and Australian releases.

[Murdoch]

dmk_world uploaded some captures a while ago comparing the R2 and R1 here.

I held off on the R2 because the transfer looked washed out, I wonder what this new one will look like.

[Feego]

Wow, the R2 caps look awful. Perhaps the pricing for the R1 release isn't so bad after all. Hopefully it's an improvement over the old Anchor Bay release as well.

[dustysomers]

I haven't seen any previous release, but just got this in and the transfer is pretty good, with nice, natural colors. The interviews look to be from the same session as those included on Microcinema's recent release of SURVIVING DESIRE.

[TechnicolorAcid]

I saw this last night and I absolutely loved it. Hartley creates an almost dreamlike view of suburbia and it’s inhabitants filled with occasionally spontaneous moments of deadpan warmth (a key moment that sticks out to my being Mike’s sudden guitar performance that just hit me with pure dopamine on my first watch) with a bit of a melodramatic edge to the whole thing that allows us to truly connect with it’s characters. But what most surprised me was its attitude towards the anxieties the characters carries with them especially with nuclear existentialism, specifically how mundane it feels. Sure characters talk about it but it’s another footnote in their lives (part of me is reminded of an exchange in the 1936 I Am a Cat film where the arrival of WWII is not nearly as important to the residents of a small town as two townspeople getting married) because at the end of the day, what can we do with the world’s problems but sit back and try to keep living our lives in peace. Very excited to see what else Hartley has to offer up because this is a real gem.

[MichaelB]

I have very fond memories of this film because it was a bona fide word of mouth hit at a time that the struggling independent cinema I worked at really desperately needed one. And word of mouth hits are my favourite kind.

[jazzo]

Yeah, I remember living through all of this during film school, and seeing his work (features and shorts, sometimes on PBS!), Linklater's first works, Spike's early films, sex, lies and videotape, and thinking, Geez, maybe this is all possible after all.

It was all so exciting, the potential...

Whether any of that was met, or what it evolved to is another conversation.