Desert Hearts

In this tender romance, a 35-year-old college professor named Vivian heads to 1959 Reno to get a divorce. While there, she falls into a passionate lesbian love affair with a younger woman who lives at the same ranch where she’s staying., In this uneven film about a change in sexual orientation, a group of women on vacation on a Nevada ranch commiserate about their pending divorces, but one inhibited 35-year-old among them (played by Helen Shaver) is particularly maladjusted. She is more rigid and conformist than the rest, and so is especially confused and put off when the rancher’s adopted daughter starts to make some obvious overtures in her direction. After awhile the up-tight woman realizes that she has strong homosexual tendencies, but she still sees them as “unnatural” and struggles with her own feelings., A vivid, warm and humorous drama of self-discovery and lesbian romance unfolds in ’50s Nevada. With Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau. Directed by Donna Deitch., A 35-year-old college professor named Vivian heads to 1959 Reno to get a divorce. While there, she falls into a passionate lesbian love affair with a younger woman who lives at the same ranch where she’s staying., Reno, Nevada…the late 1950s. A New York professor comes to Reno to get a divorce and is pursued by a young, openly gay woman, which forces her to examine her own sexuality.