Hal Hartley and Netflix exclusives

It’s been a long time since anyone paid all that much attention to the films of Hal Hartley — see this article from last February’s New York Magazine for more on that subject — so it’s a little odd to hear that his most recent film, The Girl from Monday, will now be available on DVD exclusively through Netflix, i.e. as a rental, i.e. impossible to purchase, at least in North America, for the foreseeable future. It’s a curiously strange way to try to come back from obscurity — assuming Hartley has any interest in doing so. There is no word yet on whether a similar deal is being struck with any Canadian DVD rental outfits.

FWIW, I got into the reviewing business around the time Hartley’s star began to fade, so the only review of his work that I’ve written, at least that’s available online, is this blurb on The Book of Life (1998) during its appearance at the local film festival.