Desert Hearts

In Donna Deitch’s narrative feature debut, high-strung East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to file for divorce, only to be swept up in a sensuous romance with free-spirited Cay (Patricia Charbonneau). Set in 1959 and adapted from the novel by Jane Rule, this beautifully controlled drama has become a classic in the queer cinema canon and was groundbreaking upon its 1985 release for depicting a tender romance between two women, produced and directed by a woman.

In her initial request to adapt the book, Deitch wrote, “My objective in making a film about lesbians is not that we are the best of all possible women, but that we are real, sympathetic, beautiful, intelligent human beings capable of good and bad.” With an evocative honky-tonk soundtrack and breathtaking cinematography from Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), the desert landscapes of Nevada and the neon signs of Reno shine as brightly as a string of lights around your heart.