Made for only $350,000 in 1985 when no one wanted to fund or star in a movie about lesbians, Desert Hearts is widely considered the first full-length lesbian love story, and its success paved the way for the proliferation of lesbian films we enjoy today.
Directed by Donna Deitch and set in 1950's Reno, Nevada, Desert Hearts tells the story of a 35-year-old uptight female professor Vivian (Helen Shaver) who comes to town to file for divorce and ends up falling in love with a free-spirited 25-year-old casino worker Cay (Patricia Charbonneau).
Although Vivian left her husband because she had "drowned in still waters," she is not quite prepared for the tidal wave-effect Cay has on her life. As Vivian herself admits, her life is all about "order," and her image of herself as a scholar and a professional, upstanding woman does not include a relationship with a woman. Cay, meanwhile, is living at home with her stepmother, Frances (Audra Lindley) while she waits to meet someone who "counts"--and she almost immediately recognizes that Vivian is that someone.
Both women struggle with conflicting desires and a sense of obligation to others, and are ultimately drawn together not just because of their attraction to each other, but because each woman offers the other something she has been unable to find on her own.。大清末年,少女吟儿(刘若英 饰)出嫁前夕,被强召入宫,与心上人荣庆(黄海冰 饰)天各一方,俩人遵循不求同生但求同死的信念,期待重逢的那一天。初来乍到宫中,吟儿对一切都不甚了解,凡事由姑姑们相教。从此,她开始了九死一生的岁月,先后伺候过慈禧太后(斯琴高娃 饰)、珍妃(蒋雯丽 饰)和光绪皇帝(邱心志 饰)。宫外的荣庆则辗转九城,始终不忘与吟儿的约定,他们伴随着摇摇欲坠的晚清帝国,经历了一系列当时所发生的历史亊件。宫墙内外的一双小人物随着时局的动荡和宫庭恩怨似树叶般飘来落去、身不由已。终于,在西太后格外恩准下,历经十年分离之苦的吟儿和荣庆终得团聚,伹却应证了当初的诺言,洞房之夜双双殒命......。