_Ned Rifle_ and _Every Thing Will be Fine_ got me rewatching
_Henry Fool_. That is also a film about how a writer owes
less-than-perfect circumstances his success and artistic
inspiration. Whereas Wim Wenders' film underplays that
theme, Hal Hartley makes it front and center and derives
maximal drama out of it. The screenplay, surely one of the
most brilliant in American cinema in the last 20 years
(it won a Cannes award), also touches on dysfunctional
family dynamics (as almost all of Hartley's early films
do) and the beginning of the hard right-turn in American
politics.

One wonder how much the Simon Grim character is inspired
by Hartley's own experience. Hartley also had a blue-collar
background; was a faux-artist like Henry Fool behind
Hartley's highly intellectualized approach? Most
filmmakers like to talk about anecdotes from their past.
Hartley is happy to discuss which filmmaker or writer
influenced him, which is rare, but he is intensely private
about his personal life. Maybe we will never know the true
inspiration behind _Henry Fool_.

---------------------------------------------------------

I also rewatched Hartley's _Meanwhile_, released in 2012
and 60 minutes long. The short feature is shot almost
entirely in Manhattan, something of a rarity for Hartley. The
protagonist Joseph is a middle-aged drummer, handyman, and
prospective entrepreneur who fears being perceived as a failure.
He is dead broke after NY State freezes his asset for missing
a $200 tax payment, and -- being too principled to take money
from his ex-girlfriend or to slip into the Metro without
paying, ends up walking across the Brooklyn Bridge as well
as up and down the peninsular. (At one point he goes into
the 72nd St red line station; once upon a time I stayed at
the Amsterdam Inn right there, year after year.)

The film is a departure for Hartley; it works like a
_Rosetta_ for fledging small business owners, which is a
weird mix indeed. At one point Joseph spells out that he
is more of a materialist, focused on making ends meet rather
than spiritual transcendence. It is Hartley's acknowledgement
of the daily struggles of his beloved New Yorkers, but makes
for a less-than-inspired story.

The protagonist Joseph is played by D.J. Mendel. The actor
supposedly has had bit parts in Hartley's _Fay Grim_, _The
Book of Life_, and _The Girl from Monday_. I have absolutely
no recollection of seeing him in those films. In interviews
Hartley singles out him (and Parker Posey) for praise, saying
he understands Hartley's focus on motion best among the actors.
The comment really puzzles me; I don't recall seeing him move
much at all, and rewatching the film I wasn't much enlightened.

I really wish someone like James Urbeniak ("Simon Grim") would
have taken the role. Mendel comes off as a confident, almost
smug, hustler, lacking any self-searching tendency. I know
that is exactly the point of the film -- while all of Hartley's
spiritual quests are going on, others have to live. But Mendel is
balding and greying, and his ex-wife is drop-dead gorgeous, and
the lover he splits with at the beginning of the film looks
barely 16. So the monetary responsibility is paired with a
Henry Fool-like philandering spirit. I'm just not impressed.

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