Desert Hearts (1986)

Directed by Donna Deitch. Starring Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Dean Butler, James Staley, Gwen Welles, Katie La Bourdette, Alex MacArthur. [R]

Reserved, apprehensive English professor Shaver arrives in Reno for a short-term residency in order to get a clean, quick divorce, and meets the more adventurous and free-spirited casino worker Charbonneau, a gay woman who’s uninhibited about her sexuality at a time when such status was widely viewed with disapproval. The first of only two feature films that director Deitch ever made, and it helped bring lesbianism into the mainstream through sophisticated and direct terms. The pattern of seduction/resistance/surrender is recognizable, even universal, and no effort is made to stylize or exploit or render it as a gimmick; a shortage of character detail and the rigidity in arriving at the necessary story turns and interactions, however, makes it seem all too connect-the-dots conventional and visually featureless by today’s standards. As a tasteful if shallow exploration of erotic awakening against spiteful social prejudice, it fits the bill, and being a low-key groundbreaker for lesbian cinema has to count for something. Played at some film festivals in 1985 before getting released the following year.

66/100