Performance in the Cinema of Hal Hartley By Steven Rawle

and distribute work, what hope is there for the young, committed artistic independent filmmaker?

There are many to thank for their patience, help, and mentorship throughout the process of researching, writing, and finishing this book. Initial gratitude goes to those at Cambria Press, who have been so helpful, to Toni Tan, and especially to Paul Richardson for helping to get the project moving, and everyone who has been involved in putting the book together. Thanks go to Paul Coates, Aylish Wood, David Hewitt, Martin Fradley, Lesley Harbidge, Geoff King, and Alan Marcus, who read the text in various guises, shapes, forms, and stages, and provided invaluable advice, guidance, and help in getting this into a shape that was in anyway readable. Great kudos to my current and former colleagues in the department of film and television production and the faculty of arts at York St John University, who have covered teaching while I have been on research leave and have listened to me complain and agonise over “the book”. Thanks go to Celine Kingman, Kevin Gash, Wendy Burke, Jimmy Richards, John Marland, Lee-Jane Bennion-Nixon, Peter Cook, Robin Small, Andrew Platts, Liz Greene, Alan Clarke, Saffron Walkling, David Thom, Helen Lofthouse, and Lucas Swann. Thanks also go to those who helped organise my research leave and were good enough to support conference travel and research (often at the last moment): Robert Edgar-Hunt, Gary Peters, Jeff Craine, Steve Purcell, Robert Wilsmore, and Alison Rigg. Good cheers should also go to the friends whose support has been appreciated over nearly the last decade in which this book has been written. Thanks should also go to all of the students of York St John University and the University of Aberdeen, who, over the past six years, have been exposed to Hartley’s work and have responded with critical ideas and kindness. Finally, thanks should go to my family, my parents, Ralph and Barbara, who did more than most to see that this book reached your hands, and my brother Andrew, who has listened to a great deal over the past few years. And then, to Lorna, who was not there at the beginning, but who has been instrumental in helping me get through the final year of work, and without whom this simply could not have been completed.