Desert Hearts (1985)

Desert Hearts (1985) was written and directed by Donna Deitch. The movie is set in Reno, Nevada in the late 1950's. At that time, a route to a quick divorce was for women to travel to Reno, establish "residence" for six weeks, and then get a rubber-stamp (but legal) divorce.Helen Shaver plays the sophisticated Vivian Bell, a professor at Colombia University, who has traveled to Reno for her divorce. Clearly, she is out of place in Reno. Patricia Charbonneau portrays Cay Rivvers, who is very much at home in Reno. She works at a casino, changing dollar bills for silver dollars so that people can play the slot machines.The basic plot of the movie is whether Vivian and Cay will have a lesbian love affair. In 2018, it's hard to remember that, even in 1985, this was a daring topic. In fact, both leads had to sign contracts agreeing to appear nude from the waist up. Both actors were told that it would be career suicide if they took these roles.This movie is worth seeing because it may have been the first mainstream movie that dealt openly with lesbian love and lesbian sexual attraction. Don't see it because of the sex scene that "nearly fogs the camera's lens." Maybe in 1985 the lens got fogged, but not now.See it for the good acting from both leads, and see it because it reminds us of how far we've progressed as a society since 1985. We saw this film at the wonderful Dryden Theatre at Rochester's George Eastman Museum. The film has been digitally restored. The restoration was funded by a consortium of groups. Unfortunately, the restoration had to be done digitally, because of the immense cost of restoring 35mm films to 35mm. However, that's OK, because the digital reconstruction looks great. The movie will work well enough on the small screen. It's worth seeking out and seeing.

Great performances from Helen Shaver and newcomer Patricia Charbonneau. The movie is ahead of its time. What ever happened to Charbonneau? Fantastic actress!

This film has very weak story line, which is bound to bore the audience. So they tried to overcompensate it by putting a lot sexual attentions in it. But that could not do any good for the movie, as they failed to depict those attentions in a classy way.The acting skill of all the characters made a huge dent on the film. As the acting of the main characters was quite clumsy, it was hard to endure it throughout the film. It seemed that they are struggling to act and deliver the apt emotion in the scenes.Not Recommended.

I love this movie. I can't remember the first time I saw it (probably in college in the late '80s), but I've kept coming back to it over the years. The movie definitely stands on its own, but I was also drawn to read Jane Rule's book, "Desert of the Heart," upon which the movie's based. In the book, Reno (and the desert around it) are as much a principal player Cay and Vivian. Time, heat and wide-open desert give the story a gravity and sad emptiness the film doesn't quite capture, and Rule's writing is really a quite beautiful and multi-layered affair. But the movie does a wonderful job of juxtaposing the carefree passion of young, unattached Cay with the stifling oppression that Vivian longs to divorce. In early 60s USA, Reno is a perfect frontier town for reinvention of self. And the sex is hot.