Oct 26 2005
Monologue from Henry Fool
When I first saw Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool in 1996, I thought it was one of the best films ever made. It was unlike anything I’d seen before. I was easily impressed, I suppose, because it was one of my first introductions to art house films. I went nuts over stuff like Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law and Yimou Zhang’s Red Sorguhm. I’ve since changed my mind about these movies, but I still like them and would recommend them.
Red Sorghum is a wonderful fairy tale and beautifully shot. Zhang also directed Raise the Red Lantern. Down by Law also has some of the most the striking cinematography you’ll ever see (thanks to Robby Müller). Watching Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni doing nothing was never so fasinating. Jarmusch also directed Dead Man (which I don’t like) and Broken Flowers.
And for Henry Fool, outside of Quentin Tarantino, I don’t think there’s another director who has as much fun with dialogue as Hal Hartley. Some think it’s intellectually pretentious and stagey — and it is — but it’s still good fun: A short monologue from Henry Fool (500kb MP3).
Well, I’ve been watching a scene or two from “Henry Fool” every day after breakfast for the past week. I enjoyed watching the beginning of the movie. The guy who plays Henry would annoy most people, but I laugh at everything he does. Once the movie gets going, though, it drags and doesn’t pick up. It’s like Hal Hartley created some interesting characters and situations, but then didn’t know what to do with them. Which seems to happen a lot. There are too many subplots that go nowhere and aren’t really necessary. Nothing wrong with interesting characters, but perhaps he should have saved them for another movie. The main focus should be on Henry and his relationship with Simon, the garbage man who discovers his own writing voice under Henry’s tutelage. Strip it down to that, and you’d have a nice 90-minute movie that doesn’t waste any time. I remember loving this movie when I first saw it, but now I’d give it a 7 out of 10 at the most. Certain qualities of the film are admirable, but it could have been a much better film if they’d just written it smaller, not large. 2 hours and 2 minutes is just way too long for a story like this. I haven’t finished watching it yet, but I doubt I’ll change mind much by the time I’m done.
Like anybody cares either way.