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Desert Hearts

Desert Hearts
Desert heartsposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Donna Deitch
Produced by Donna Deitch
Cami Taylor
Screenplay by Natalie Cooper
Based on Desert of the Heart
by Jane Rule
Starring Helen Shaver
Patricia Charbonneau
Audra Lindley
Andra Akers
Gwen Welles
Dean Butler
Cinematography Robert Elswit
Edited by Robert Estrin
Distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release date
August 28, 1985 (1985-08-28)
Running time
96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1.5 million
Box office $2.5 million

Desert Hearts is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed by Donna Deitch. The screenplay written by Natalie Cooper is an adaptation of the 1964 lesbian-themed novel Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule. The film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley.

In 1959, Vivian Bell, a 35-year-old English professor at Columbia University in New York City, travels to Reno to establish residency in Nevada (a process that takes six weeks), in order to obtain a quickie divorce. She stays at a guest house ranch for women who are waiting for their divorces to be finalized. The guest ranch is owned by Frances Parker.

Vivian meets Cay Rivvers, a younger, free-spirited sculptor whom Frances loves as if she were her mother. Cay works at a casino as a change operator in Reno, and is ending a relationship with Darrell, her boss, because as she put it, she "allowed (her)self to be attracted to his attraction" for her. When Vivian arrives, Cay notices her immediately, and the tightly controlled and elegant Vivian, in turn, is taken aback by Cay's boldness and lack of concern of what others think of her (and her romantic/sexual preferences). Cay reveals that she has had relationships with women in the past. Frances jealously notices that Vivian is becoming a bigger and bigger part of Cay's life, and resents her for it, afraid that Cay will leave her and the ranch, and she will be left alone. Frances sees Cay as her only "family," even though Cay is not her actual child, but rather the daughter of Frances' "man" Glenn who has been dead several years.

When everyone attends an engagement party for Cay's best friend and co-worker, Silver, Cay drives a drunken Vivian to see Lake Tahoe afterwards and kisses her. Vivian returns the kiss passionately and is so surprised by her response to Cay's advance that she begs Cay to take her home. When they return to the ranch in the early morning, Frances has Vivian's bags and a taxi waiting for her, furious that (Frances presumed) she has seduced Cay. Cay leaves the ranch immediately, and Vivian takes a room at a casino hotel for the rest of her stay.


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