DESERT HEARTS

DESERT HEARTS is a sensitively told story of a friendship that ripens into a love affair between 2 women in the 1950s. Vivian (Helen Shaver), an uptight, 35-year-old English prof, goes to a Reno dude ranch to await her divorce decree. She meets Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), a local younger woman whose free lifestyle is the reverse of Vivian's ordered existence. Their developing relationship is neither understood nor tolerated on the ranch. Donna Deitch's previous documentary film savvy shows in her attention to detail that makes the Reno characters and gambling environment (a metaphor for the women's risk-taking choices) ring true. The fine ensemble performances no doubt helped the film to win a prize at Locarno's Festival.