The story of "Amateur" began in 1991. "I was travelling around Europe on a publicity tour for 'Trust,'" says Hartley. "I had just finished shooting 'Simple Men' and all I wanted to do was sleep. The whole business of being a filmmaker had suddenly become a lot bigger and more complicated. I wanted to check out of my responsibilities and I became intrigued by the idea of someone escaping who they are. I don't believe that's possible, but it would be possible for someone with amnesia."
As the idea for "Amateur" was formulating in his mind, Hal received a letter from Isabelle Huppert. "I wrote to Hal after I'd seen 'Trust' and told him I would love to work with him," Isabelle explains. "I really liked 'Trust,'" she says. "There was a certain way of acting, a certain way of showing complexities and ambiguities which you don't often find in American cinema. There is something very poetic, an aesthetic, in his films. He is a real auteur in the European sense."
"I was pretty staggered to receive Isabelle's letter," says The Story of Women' for her performance. There is something about her face, her attitudes and reactions that fit quite well into the mode of female lead I've been utilizing over the past few years."
Hal met Isabelle in Paris and outlined the story of "Amateur." She was intrigued and he went away to write it for her, Martin Donovan and Elina Lowensohn. Shooting started in July, 1993 in New York.
Isabelle Huppert plays Isabelle, an ex-nun who has come to America because, she claims, the Virgin Mary once appeared to her and assigned her a mission. "She is a very funny character," says Isabelle. "She is a nun and a virgin who believes she is a nymphomaniac. She writes pornography to earn a living. At the beginning of the movie she is dressed like a nun and is a serious, mystical person. Halfway through the story she transforms herself into an erotic and sexy character. She represents the two tendencies of a human being--the inner and the outer, the contemplative side and the exposed side. She embodies the different potential of any human being."
Martin Donovan, who starred in "Trust" and has appeared in five of Hal's films, plays Thomas, a gentle, sensitive man suffering from amnesia. He can't remember that he used to be a ruthless producer of pornography who enslaved a young girl, married her and forced her to become a porn star and prostitute. "Thomas terrorizes his wife, Sofia, who shoves him out of a loft window and believes she has killed him. My character wakes up with amnesia and doesn't know where he is or who he is. I hook up with an ex-nun who says she is a nymphomaniac," Martin explains. "Isabelle is fascinated by my condition -- my lack of presumption, as she calls it. We fall in love and try to find out who I am. I never find out, but by the end I have some idea."
"Amateur" also reunites Hartley with Elina Lowensohn, who played Elina in "Simple Men." She plays Sofia, a naive young porn star who has been corrupted and enslaved by her husband, Thomas. "Sofia is an ex-porn star who decides to change her life," Elina says. "But, because of her innocence and naivete, she gets involved with things she doesn't understand and causes the whole mess at the end. So she's an amateur at trying to change her life."
"Amateur" is the first feature film Hal Hartley has made in New York City, where he has lived since 1984. "Earlier this year he made a music video and short film, 'Flirt,' within walking distance of his apartment in Lower Manhattan," says producer Ted Hope. "He liked it and looked forward to creating 'Amateur' out of images of places he saw every day."
"By the nature of where we're shooting, 'Amateur' has a New York look to it," says cinematographer Michael Spiller. "We see a lot of New York in the film, without ever seeing wide, establishing shots. In fact, when we were first discussing 'Amateur,' Hal said that he was looking for Rome in the afternoon in New York." "Hal is very much influenced by European cinema, but at the same time he is American and is influenced by his country, its light, its rhythm," says Isabelle Huppert.
This European/American theme is reflected in the locations featured in "Amateur." "Our locations include Grand Central Station, which is said to be based on the Paris Opers House, and the Cloisters, which were moved from Europe by Rockefeller," says Ted Hope. "You could say that both are a bit of Europe in New York, which is very appropriate to the film."
"'Amateur' refers to the way I feel most of the time," says Hartley. "Non-professional. Sort of confused about what standards of quality and competence refer to." Despite Hal's claims of an amateur status, this is his most ambitious project to date. He is working with a bigger budget, a bigger crew and an international star. "It's still a low-budget picture by normal standards, but having more money allows me to do things I haven't been able to do before," says Hartley.
"I call 'Amateur' a metaphysical thriller," says Isabelle Huppert. "It's a strong thriller full of deep and philosophical themes and questions. But it's never intellectual or cerebral. To carry all that depth and ask all those deep questions in a simple, action movie is truly great art."
