Desert Hearts

Director: Donna Deitch

1985 / 96min / DCP

Thanks to the baroque divorce laws in place in 1959, Columbia University professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) is forced to spend six weeks in Reno, Nevada, in order to officially end her marriage. But once Vivian meets Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), a young, bisexual sculptor who makes no bones about her attraction to Vivian, the intimidated-yet-intrigued academic can’t decide if she wants to beat an immediate retreat from Cay… or extend her stay in the balmy, seductive desert indefinitely. Adapted from Jane Rule’s novel of the same title, Deitch’s film—as a female-directed lesbian romance—was a landmark at the time of its release, and has lost none of its seductive charm 37 years later.