母亲的死让长期离家的女儿蒂尔达Tilda回到父亲身边,法官米卡埃尔Mikael注定要为他的儿子丹尼尔Daniel的生活操碎了心。因为在他的眼里,丹尼尔和蒂尔达坠入爱河是件十分可耻的事,当然,他并不知道他的这对儿女约定用假装乱伦来惩罚独裁专横的自己。他决心滥用一切权力将他的儿子从罪孽的迷恋中拯救出来。然而,他所有的努力结果都是徒劳的,以致于变得越来越绝望,只能无条件地信任他的儿女——因为丹尼尔始终没有自己姐姐以外的感情对象。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.。