Presented in competition at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, First Reformed is the latest feature film directed by acclaimed director Paul Schrader.
Father Toller is a former military chaplain, and pastor of a small church in the province, tormented by guilt over the death of his son, after he forced to enlist, ma, at the same time, with the difficult task of helping a young married couple expecting their first child to regain confidence towards life.
Some of the leitmotif of the entire filmography of the director seem, who, Finally, find their own, just completed. First of all: the themes of religion and self-discovery, in one way or another real constant within the same career Schrader.
The format in 4:3, combined with a photograph faded to gray, to fixed chamber shots and a copious use of wide angle, It is from the first minute to suggest a context seemingly timeless (we know from the dialogues of the characters, that the story is set in 2017, ma, in fact, both in terms of the sets that the props - except for a computer - we have the impression that we are in a kind of place where time itself seems to stand still), so cramped and distressing to be perfectly reflected in the soul of the protagonist Bresson.
His initial composure and his apparent security, But, will begin soon to falter, to the point of taking, after months and months of terrible inner torments, a decision to say the least extreme. And then also the initial (and masterful!) directing stiffness seems to give way, man mano, in camera moves away more agile way that, along with a comparable music more than anything else a drone, We will accompany us throughout the difficult journey of the protagonist. Da un maestro come Paul Schrader, however, It is almost natural to expect such a mastery of the medium of film. Same goes for Ethan Hawke, which makes it to perfection the various changes of register of the protagonist, in a crescendo of emotions, without ever going over the top.
Unfortunately, But, within a product that knows well to stage the intimate character and, Despite the subject matter, avoids falling into banal clichés, Sporadic drop style - first of all: the scene, dreamlike, where we see the protagonist off the ground together with the young Mary, making, with her, a kind of "journey" imaginary - hint that Schrader same, taken probably from the heat of wanting to tell a story that - as he said - had in Serbia for almost fifty years, It has left to take a little 'too carried away.
Sin. Especially because, despite the overall good quality of the feature film, a filmmaker Paul Schrader as one would have expected a lot, but much more. But anyhow. For an author of his caliber will forgive that and more.
marina fears