Based on the life of an eccentric Lexington artist, a screenplay by Transylvania University alumnus Jim Hall ’81 recently garnered several European film festival awards.
“The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner” claimed Best Epic Feature and Best Independent Spirit at the Monaco International Film Festival’s Angel Film Awards and Best Feature Screenplay at the Amsterdam New Cinema Festival.
Hall, a retired pilot who lives in the Netherlands, sees such acclaim as a bonus when finding a producer for his script — he’s sent it to one in Toronto who’s interested.
Loosely drawn from a book by Charles House with the same title, the screenplay is a drama based on historical facts. Its complex narrative features mostly flashbacks from throughout Faulkner’s life. But the film takes place in just one day — Dec. 5, 1981 — when he was killed in a car crash at the intersection Third and Broadway near campus.
An oil painter, Faulkner’s name lives on locally through legends and the Faulkner Morgan Archive, which promotes Kentucky’s LGBTQ history (alumnus Josh Porter ’19 is its assistant executive director).
Hall recently visited Lexington to buy an original Faulkner painting, and he’s consulted with the artist’s longtime friend Bob Morgan along with the author’s wife, Nora, acquiring the rights for the screenplay from her.
Billed as depicting the “colorful and adventurous life of one of America’s most talented unknown gay artists and his quest for self-expression and respect,” the script spans the globe from Lexington to Rome. “It has a very European feel to it,” Hall said. The second part of the work focuses mainly on Faulkner’s relationship with playwright Tennessee Williams.
Faulkner was certainly an original character, and like Williams, not always a sympathetic one. “There’s been no one else like him,” Hall said. For instance, Faulkner would walk around town with his pet goat Alice while loudly singing opera. The Kentucky native grew up in foster homes across the state and was “tough as nails,” getting right back up whenever he got knocked down.
“I’m trying to depict Henry’s personality, his passions, the way he dealt with the world,” Hall noted. “Writing a screenplay is a huge task.”
When COVID-19 grounded him as a pilot and he was living under Spain’s sweeping lockdown restrictions, he found himself looking for something to do. So he drew on his graduate studies at UCLA’s film school and launched into the script.
In addition to screenwriting, Hall has also restored 17th-century canal houses in Amsterdam and built harpsichords. His love for the instrument goes back to his days at Transylvania, when he helped raise money to buy one for the music department.
The English lit major looks back with particular fondness at the mentorship of professor Tay Fizdale, who sparked his interest in film. Thanks to Hall’s well-rounded education, he more than held his own when he went on to attend one of the world’s top film schools. “My years at Transy really had a big influence on me,” he said.