Unconventionally overcoming a person’s station in life. First Reformed and the path of radical activism. Inevitable comparisons to Paul Schrader’s Taxi Driver. Shouldn’t we all get radicalized? Eight and one half. How to decipher a film after you watch it and and aren’t even sure you could say what it’s about. Laying all the pieces of 8 1/2 on the table. French movies that are about something but you’re not sure what that something is. A different (and better?) way to handle the tortured genius trope.
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First Reformed
Released: May 18, 2018
Runtime: 113 min | IMDB | Wikipedia
Director: Paul Schrader
Writer: Paul Schrader
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer
A pastor of a small church in upstate New York starts to spiral out of control after a soul-shaking encounter with an unstable environmental activist and his pregnant wife.
8½
Released: February 14, 1963
Runtime: 138 min | IMDB | Wikipedia
Director: Federico Fellini
Writer: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
