The Henry Fool Trilogy (Hal Hartley, 1997-2014)
- Floyd
- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:25 pm
The Henry Fool Trilogy (Hal Hartley, 1997-2014)
FAY GRIM, a new film written and directed by Hal Hartley
Fay Grim is a single Mom from Woodside, Queens, New York, manically preoccupied with raising her 14 year old son, Ned, so he won't grow up to be like his father.
His father, Henry, is missing.
Seven years earlier, he accidentally killed a vicious neighbor and fled – never to be seen or heard from again.
Fay's brother, Simon, is a popularly vilified and world famous poet (formerly a garbage man) serving ten years in prison for aiding and abetting Henry's escape. In the quiet of his cell, Simon has had time to think about the tumultuous years of Henry's presence amongst them – chronicled earlier in the film Henry Fool (1997).
Simon has come to suspect that Henry was not the ego-maniac garbage man, sex fiend, and failed literary genius he appeared to be. He suspects Henry's apparently worthless autobiography – his “Confessionsâ€
Fay Grim is a single Mom from Woodside, Queens, New York, manically preoccupied with raising her 14 year old son, Ned, so he won't grow up to be like his father.
His father, Henry, is missing.
Seven years earlier, he accidentally killed a vicious neighbor and fled – never to be seen or heard from again.
Fay's brother, Simon, is a popularly vilified and world famous poet (formerly a garbage man) serving ten years in prison for aiding and abetting Henry's escape. In the quiet of his cell, Simon has had time to think about the tumultuous years of Henry's presence amongst them – chronicled earlier in the film Henry Fool (1997).
Simon has come to suspect that Henry was not the ego-maniac garbage man, sex fiend, and failed literary genius he appeared to be. He suspects Henry's apparently worthless autobiography – his “Confessionsâ€
Last edited by Floyd on Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:07 am, edited 3 times in total.
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
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- Mr Pixies
- Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 10:03 pm
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Yeah, No Such Thing was the first Hartley film I saw, and it really hooked me. I saw the Girl From Monday, I didn't like it that much, it probably has to do with how it was shot, I think it was Mini DV. Like the Book of Life, but that was much better.
I loved Henry Fool, and I'm looking forward to seeing those characters again.
I loved Henry Fool, and I'm looking forward to seeing those characters again.
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec
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Scott Tobias from the Onion blogs:
I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.
This is disappointing to hear, but I thought Thomas Jay Ryan's performance in Henry Fool was criminally overlooked (as was the film and the actor himself) so it will be a treat to see him revist the character again.Following years of enormous cachet as a grad-school hero—for the longest time, I thought his films existed to help English majors get laid—Hal Hartley has been on the downward slope for some time. So it's especially curious to see Hartley make Fay Grim, a decade-removed sequel to Henry Fool that treats the Hartley universe a little like Kevin Smith's Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. But does anyone still care? Fortunately, Hartley's self-reflexive movie has plenty of laughs, especially in the first half, and it evolves into a reasonably fresh goof on the international spy thriller. But the thing about goofs is that they're too inconsequential to sustain much more than 90 minutes and Fay Grim goes on another 30 minutes more, thanks to Hartley's (again, Smith-like) inability to trim the fat.
I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.
- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
It's being distributed by Magnolia Pictures. They actually co-produced it.Antoine Doinel wrote:I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.
- Galen Young
- Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:46 pm
- miless
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm
I interned in NY at another company that co-produced this one and I'm surprised that it was completed so quickly... when I was working there it was an upcoming production (when other films that were in production have yet to be completed)... this was one of only two good films in pre-production when I was working there (the other one is a Todd Solondz film). I can't wait to see it.Matt wrote:It's being distributed by Magnolia Pictures. They actually co-produced it.Antoine Doinel wrote:I just hope someone picks this up for distribution.
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- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
It's kind of nice that Parker Posey is having a kind of career resurgence. Granted, it's kind of scattershot (supporting roles in comic book movies big and small, TV work in dramas and... "Project Runway", this movie), but she's never not interesting to watch and she's often the best thing about whatever she's in. She'll never be the big star that people expected her to be, but she can at least be the Eve Arden of her generation.
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
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Here's the trailer.
It's getting one of those near simultaneous theatrical and DVD releases - in theatres May 18, on DVD May 22.
It's getting one of those near simultaneous theatrical and DVD releases - in theatres May 18, on DVD May 22.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- Jean-Luc Garbo
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- Antoine Doinel
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Re: Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)
So this is why Hal Hartley hasn't made a film in a few years. Caught up with this today, and while I agree with domino that the first 30 minutes are quite funny, the other 90 minutes are insufferable. While the film starts a spy movie goof (though why it had to be done with the characters from Henry Fool is beyond me), Hartley begins to believe his own BS and the rest of the film plays it disappointingly straight. Add to that, this is probably Parker's hammiest performance outside of Superman Returns. The only upside is that Hartley chooses to dress Parker in little more than an overcoat, bra and panties for the Paris segment which leads to the best gag of the whole film. All that said, when we finally get to Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Fool, it's like he's being fed leftover lines from the first film. Overall, this thing is quite the train wreck.
- Barmy
- Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm
Re: Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)
He's gone on to directing opera in Holland.
- tavernier
- Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm
Re: Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)
At least he didn't force-feed Elina Lowensohn on them.Barmy wrote:He's gone on to directing opera in Holland.
- The Fanciful Norwegian
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- jorencain
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:45 am
Re: New Films in Production, v.2
In one of the extra features on the "Fay Grim" DVD, I remember them half-joking about making a third film, and that "Fay Grim" was the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy.The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Hartley prepping another Henry Fool sequel
- warren oates
- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: New Films in Production, v.2
Man, that is like a bad joke. Henry Fool is one of his greatest films and the very idea of a sequel seemed like a desecration to me. Of course, I saw Fay Grim anyway and once was more than enough. After Meanwhile, it felt like Hartley was returning from the wilderness and I hoped he'd continue making new work in that same pared-down mode. Maybe this will be a "sequel" in name only.jorencain wrote:In one of the extra features on the "Fay Grim" DVD, I remember them half-joking about making a third film, and that "Fay Grim" was the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy.The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Hartley prepping another Henry Fool sequel