Amateur

Amateur (1994) is Hal Hartley's deadpan crime comedy, ready to watch online on iFILM. A man comes to in an alley, soaked in blood and unable to recall a single thing — not even his own name. It opens one of the oddest stories in nineties American independent cinema.

The person who takes him in is Isabelle, an ex-nun who calls herself a virgin nymphomaniac and writes pornography nobody will buy. Isabelle Huppert plays her, and that casting alone is reason enough to start watching. Bit by bit the amnesiac (Martin Donovan) turns out to be a porn-trade operator whose wife is on the run, while hired killers track them both over a stash of floppy disks worth a million dollars. Michael Imperioli and Parker Posey turn up in smaller roles.

Hartley shoots all of it with his trademark detachment: flat humour, long pauses, dialogue where violence sits beside musings on accountancy. It's not a crowd-pleaser — coolly ironic on purpose, which is exactly why niche arthouse fans hold it dear. Stream Amateur (1994) online on iFILM.