To paraphrase Kent Jones on John Carpenter: America doesn’t have so many great directors to spare that it can afford to let Hal Hartley fall through the cracks. It’s been 11 years since Ned Rifle, and while a spate of restorations and Criterion Channel streams (to say nothing of a novel based on his aborted Amazon series) do something to reinforce Hartley’s inimitable talents, there’s the sense that this filmmaker of only 65 shouldn’t be out to pasture. Thus the all-around cheer when his Kickstarter for Where to Land reached its goal in 2023––there’s surely a better world where he doesn’t have to ask to such extents, but this is not that world.
Where to Land finally debuts on September 12 at New York’s Roxy Cinema, hopefully with cities to follow. Ahead of this there’s a trailer that features a proper Hartley cast (Bill Sage, Robert John Burke, Edie Falco) and temperament; his dialogue rhythms might not make for a fluid-feeling advertisement, but I’m relieved he hasn’t seemed to lose step (nor pictorial sensibility in this low-budget digital project). And consider me intrigued by the poster for Hartley’s own Flirt in the background. One doesn’t always review his stance as a Godard acolyte, but when you remember you really remember. So yes: I’m anticipating Hal Hartley’s Every Man for Himself.
Here’s the synopsis: “A farce about a renowned director of romantic comedies who, in his senior years, applies for a job as assistant groundskeeper in a cemetery. Because he does this at the same time as meeting his lawyer to address his last will and testament, his family, friends, and neighbors assume he is dying and crowd into his apartment to express their farewells.”
Find preview and poster below:
