Close Up

4 - 27 April 2018: The Unbelievable Truth

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The Unbelievable Truth
Hal Hartley
1989 | 90 min | Colour | Digital

“The first feature by Hal Hartley, The Unbelievable Truth is the story of a small town disrupted by the return of an alleged murderer, now a mild-mannered mechanic (Burke), and his unlikely liaison with a high-school cynic turned model (Shelley). Shot in a mere eleven days, The Unbelievable Truth contains many of the attributes that have come to be associated with Hartley’s work: a wry and decidedly off-beat sense of humor; a predominantly young cast creating colorful, quirky characters; and a sensuous awareness of how to render color, movement, and space into cinematic expression (an awareness gleaned no doubt in part through Hartley’s devotion to the work of Jean-Luc Godard). This affectionate satire on the shortcomings of small-town life reflects on how hearsay and bias can shape a community’s sense of reality.” – Harvard Film Archive


Part of our season on Hal Hartley