The Italian Rêve

Lists&Reviews

First Reformed: the Spirituality of a Late Desperation

by ,

We all know Paul Schrader because he is the author of great masterpieces and a screenwriter who, alongside Martin Scorsese, gave the world film as “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver”. But now he has made a masterpiece of its own: First Reformed.  A film that already smells like Oscar and that has left everyone in the hall with a great gift, reciprocated by a standing ovation that has excited the same Schrader and the protagonists of the film, especially a moved Ethan Hawke.

first reformed

The protagonist of the film is precisely Ethan Hawke, who plays Father Toller, a man with a turbulent past, the death of a son and the failure of a marriage on his back. He decides to isolate himself and take care of the church “First reformed”, from which Paul takes the title of the film.  Amanda Seyfried, on the other hand, is a woman who attends the First Reformed church, who finds in him a kindred spirit and, above all, a man to rely on in a time of difficulties for his husband.

first reformed

The film might be divided into two parts: the first one, in which Toller tries to help the environmental activist Michael (the husband of Amanda Seyfried in the movie) and tries to save him from his desperate thoughts towards the world, knowing that the environment is now destroyed. For this very reason, Michael does not want his wife to bring out their son, because he hates his parents for the selfishness of having put him to the world, knowing that it is disappearing, that there is no way back, that the environment is gradually melting under the good people’s hands and that the power of money always wins over the power of goodness. Here Father Toller tries to give hope to the boy. The second part of the film focuses instead on the feelings of the priest, on the seed that Michael, with his words, has planted in his heart.

first reformed

Ethan Hawke said he felt comfortable in interpreting this character, though complicated and full of nuances and most likely his best interpretation: “My grandmother always told me that I would become a priest and so I grew up with the fear that the famous call would come from one moment to another, but fortunately it was not. So interpreting this character was not difficult for me, since I grew up in close contact with religion. “

first reformed

Schrader talks about religion and jokingly says, “I tried to steal the Silence script from Martin Scorsese, making him angry, because I thought he would never be able to make it and end up in “First reformed”. There is a tribute to his friend and colleague.”  In addition to religious themes, we face those environmental, but also personal: anger, loneliness and, eventually, love. This movie does not want to give answers, does not want to take a part, it just wants to turn on questions. Something that he is able to turn on perfection.

first reformed

But, on the other hand, the director is determined on what he thinks of the world: “I do not believe that humanity can survive this century, by now we have exhausted our permanence on the planet despite the centuries of experiments. I have lived in a magical period like that one of the baby boom, in which there were no wars, but then everything has changed and by now we have spoiled the planet, even for our children.”  The film’s direction enchants us: the colors, the geometry, the cleanliness of the images, the coldness that is heated only by what we see in the eyes of Father Toller and that gives us a wonderful pink color sunset on which the protagonist becomes a black contrast, while listening to the world that falls slowly apart.

first reformed

Rêve more

Newsletter