Amateur

A man wakes on a street in Manhattan. He does not know who he is. He has no papers. He goes into a café and meets a woman there: Isabelle has recently left a convent and now writes pornography; she has had no experience of it herself and does not consider that a problem. She decides to help him. Meanwhile others are looking for the same man: a woman, an accountant and two hired men. As who he is emerges, the situation gets worse. Hal Hartley writes and directs. Isabelle Huppert plays Isabelle, Martin Donovan the man and Elina Löwensohn a third character. The manner is Hartley's known shape: lines read flat, unemotional playing, fixed frames and strange timing. The narrative proceeds in the shape of a crime film and produces no suspense; the characters meet danger calmly, and that is the comedy. Isabelle Huppert was among the best known actors in France at the time and her working in American independent film drew attention. The subject is starting again without knowing your past; when the man learns who he is it becomes clear that this is no rescue. It belongs to the independent wave of the nineties and was shown at festivals. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties American independent cinema and dry humour. Who it is not for: the acting is deliberately artificial, the narrative is loose, and the film stays cold for anyone who does not take to the style.