Desert Hearts is a Lovely Little Film
by Kristin Battestella
Helen Shaver (Poltergeist: The Legacy) is Vivian Bell, a repressed New York literary professor who comes to Nevada for a quickie divorce from her perfectly unfulfilling 1959 high society marriage in the 1985 lesbian romance drama Desert Hearts. Casino worker Cay Rivvers (Patricia Charbonneau) is a wild artist also yearning for more, and she isn't afraid to express her attraction to Vivian – opening both their lives to scorn and new emotions.
Director Donna Deitch (The Women of Brewster Place) and late writer Natalie Cooper adapt the 1964 novel by Jane Rule with a realistic attention to dialogue and heartfelt conversations that anchor the fine performances. Men serve their purpose here as negative catalysts or lecherous bosses while happily married women on tranquilizers tell the upscale versus the steamy desert star-crossed to stay away from one another. However, both Vivian and Cay each say they never asked for anyone else's opinion on any same sex taboos. Their lives are nobody's concern, and the poetic script progresses well amid going to the movies and shopping montages as their attachment grows. Complaints about bad shoes and painful girdles feel natural; demure in pearls lets her hair down and puts on a pair of jeans. Rather than scandalous or titillating as lesbian scenes are so often played for the shock, gaze, or tease; Desert Hearts at times has an innocent, innocuous feeling. Women sit around in their slips on a hot day and it doesn't mean anything. Women can also kiss on a rainy night by the lake and it means everything. Townsfolk want to point the finger at who seduced whom, but as our couple bonds, a certain equality grows. The final train moments are very romantic – holding on to the railing, jogging alongside the train, charming declarations to continue to the next stop together. It rivals any similar cis hetero sweeping moment, and I often think of that “What do you want? Another forty minutes with you.”
Stylish, educated city woman Vivian is 35 and it's no longer worth staying in her “professional” childless marriage when she may yet find herself. Her career was her purpose, but she takes long cigarette drags and only gives answers when prodded into talking. Vivian never lingers, surprised by married women who gossip about sex and their husbands or departing when too many people crowd her – especially flirtatious, complimentary men. Vivian thinks the nicest thing anyone says to her is that it's okay to take off her painful pumps yet she hides behind her glasses and stays in her room working, laughing at the mess she makes in the kitchen but not wanting the lights full on if she looks bad late at night. She second guesses this move – she may end up alone and doesn't fit in with the cowboy hats but Vivian wants to be free of the perfect life she's had. Her longest conversations are with Cay, but Vivian doesn't want to mislead her like some tawdry student affair. She's never felt this way before and it's all happening too fast. In some facets, Desert Hearts isn't so much about the lesbianism as the repression and how the traditional idea of marriage holds one back. Up close, slow motion shower scenes imply new masturbatory experiences, but Vivian's a respected scholar, this humiliation is beneath her, and Cay needs to keep her voice down in public. The kiss in the rain is well done, with nothing but natural sounds and Vivian's subsequent conflict. It was just an impulse, a momentary lapse. She pulls back, arguing without raising her voice – still the submissive wife who won't remove her robe despite the smiles, laughter, and touching that makes her feel exposed and beautiful. Vivian confesses she doesn't know what to do, and the viewer wonders if this is perhaps her first orgasmic experience. Cay accuses her of just visiting this life until her divorce is finalized, but Vivian is not used to being in love of any kind. Clueless men still flirt with Vivian, unaware they are not needed, and her change is apparent in her loose hair and glowing smile. She may be ready to face New York again, but she wants to make it work with Cay, too.
Patricia Charbonneau's (Call Me) Cay says it isn't happening with her boss cum boyfriend and she's used to people talking about her rock and roll ways or dalliances with other women. She needs to be accepted for who she is man or woman but is also the first to get in her convertible and drive away from a serious relationship. Her boyfriend will have to look the other way at what she does, he may even enjoy the potential of multiple women she brings, but Cay doesn't want to be used and has a sensitive side. She admits Vivian is a keeper right away, declaring she was kicked out of college for “unnatural ways” and that she is not of Vivian's caliber. Vivian is not shocked at Cay's casual talk of getting it off with women, but Cay almost sees Vivian as the upscale man who can take her away from the desert and she must act to keep her. Cay stands up to those who oppose them and declares her intentions to seduce Vivian and see her naked. In the lengthy sex scene, it's clear Cay has the masculine know-how as she puts the do not disturb on the door and waits in the bed until Vivian's ready. They even argue about who should leave or obey, but then the subsequent deflowering takes its tender time. The lesbian saucy that today's viewers may expect actually happens very late in Desert Hearts, taking its time in the last half hour with focus on sounds, kissing, and rustling fabrics. Cay leads the gentle nipples to nipples as the hands go lower, but the specifics of who's doing what also doesn't matter. Both women are having a new intimate experience. Afterward it's initially all love and compliments, but Vivian dislikes Cay's demands to stay and have things her way. Cay doesn't think it's selfish to love Vivian, but she won't be mere pen pals or say goodbye.
Of supporting note I must mention Three's Company's Mrs. Roper herself Audra Lindley as Cay's sassy, bourbon swindling, sort of adoptive mother Frances. As the long time mistress of Cay's late father, at times the jealous Frances lives vicariously through Cay – never fully over her youthful lover and seeing him in his daughter's recklessness. She dislikes conversing with Vivian and kicks her out, uncomfortable with a sophisticated East Coast beauty. Frances is “normal” and doesn't need to pretend they are friends. She can't accept Cay either, questioning if every hug, dance, and laugh they share will become gossip. Frances doesn't understand how women together can compare to her great love. Being a kept mistress was an acceptable scandal in the good ole days, but Cay eventually helps Frances see they want a chance at happiness, too. Downtrodden trains and excellent Patsy Cline music set this romantic mood for Desert Hearts – a time when the eighties does fifties look was possible with rustic quaint interiors, creaking back porches, and screen doors. Hats and pearls provide old fashioned demure while slips and stockings hint at the feminine behind closed doors. The casino cha-chings and dusty views imply that the west is still a little wild. Women are allowed to be risque cruising in their big old sweet cars while the great rock and roll soundtrack blasts. The top is down, the hair is blowing. Desert Hearts is only a lean ninety minutes with odd fades to black or vignette style chapter transitions. These both seem unnecessary yet also make one wonder if they were short on assembly footage. Some disjointed scenes highlight secondary characters that are never seen again while other backstory is implied in later dialogue as if there were missing scenes. Other lookalike women and who's who at the family breakfast table aren't fully explained as if editing and story changes happened in media res, shrewdly pairing down the story to its core relationship. The train sounds echoing throughout the film also serve as a lovely ticking clock reminder of how this romance effects each woman's life.
In the eighties, this type of production was almost unheard of and outside of rainbow audiences, Desert Hearts seems perhaps deliberately obscured or dismissed by the mainstream. This was recommended for me to review with Jaylan Salah on the The Jays Days Show, and I'm glad to have seen this tender character driven piece. With a restored Criterion release available, there's no reason not to discover Desert Hearts.
Re-watch my Desert Hearts Video Review on The Jay Days and find more rainbow reviews including:
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of The Desert
