Although First reformed can be regarded as the "first reformed" on the surface, it's actually a huge difference. The translation of "First Reformed Church" is in line with it. This English phrase is the name of the church where the male protagonist is located. It has a history of 250 years. It has also gloriously sheltered serfs. The government and the male protagonist are holding a 250th anniversary celebration for it. To a certain extent, understanding the setting of the male protagonist cannot be separated from it.
This film can be seen as Paul Schrader's return to his own style. He set up a double dilemma for the actor Toler. Toller's body sounded a wake-up call because he neglected to take care of himself. At the same time, in the face of declining believers and more and more tourists in the church, his faith is slowly being challenged. He questioned, "Can God forgive us?"
As a senior Hollywood screenwriter, Schrader specializes in portraying male images. The men in his works all have the same set of rigorous and isolated psychological portraits. In the most famous "Taxi Driver", the protagonist Travis became a night taxi driver after he retired from the military. He witnessed everything dark in New York, slowly accumulating in his heart, and finally broke out. The hero of "Angry Bull" has seen through the shady vanity fair of boxing after repeated frustrations and victories, and finally left. They carry the tragic and heroic colors of ancient Greek heroes.
Toller and taxi driver Travis have very similar personalities, sensitive, kind, a bit paranoid, and hateful. He also had the experience of serving in the army. His son died unexpectedly because of joining the army, which planted the seeds of suspicion and pessimism in his heart. The husband of the heroine Mary, played by Amanda Seyfried, is an extreme environmentalist. The environmental pollution caused by human activities has caused him severe depression and world-weariness. He believes that the world is about to end, and he even refuses to have children. , Which seriously affected Mary and the children in her womb. Mary asks Toller, who is a pastor, to solve it. This provides the necessary conditions for the seed to germinate.
Because he was deeply affected by the Calvinist family background, it can be said that Schrader is not kind. He never treats his characters well, as harsh as a majestic parent, and his heroes are like a group of penance men carrying a cross. Schrader likes to set the situation in a narrow space, the bathroom, the desk, the boxing stage... in the square inch, in the kind of depressive atmosphere with claustrophobia, to show the magnificent emotions and psychology of the characters. Several key plots of Toller are all living in such a space, talking in a narrow room, writing on a desk, and enduring pain in the bathroom... The man and the room are connected together, with the metaphor of a trapped animal in a cage. meaning.
Schrader is not good at directing. Nonetheless, his personal directing has given the film a distinct authorship and magnified his harshness many times.
The format close to 4:3 makes the space more depressing. And many scenes are monotonous, and you don't even see any bright colors. The ambient light is dark, and the outline light is used cleverly to outline the heavy emotions of the characters, which makes many expression changes rich in layers. Religious symbols are used appropriately to highlight the opposition between religion and modern civilization. Behind the bound bomb figure is a blurred cross. These details are very intriguing. Of course, thanks to the script’s prominent and stubborn character dialogue, coupled with a trace of thriller elements, it brings a huge sense of oppression to the audience, and everything ends in a joyful soundtrack. This sense of oppression is due to the movie. Suddenly ceased and all relieved.
The film’s presentation of pollution pictures and news caused by human activities impressed me the most. Schrader did not carry out any abstraction of re-creation, but chose direct layout, supplemented by soundtrack rendering, which is very impactful. As an intellectual, Schrader worries about the future of mankind.
The script was born thanks to a meal between Paul Schrader and director Paul Pavlikowski, who just won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with "Nun Ida". It has always been his wish to make a film depicting the theme of the human spirit. Probably this is also the reason for the name of the film, and there are also many references to "Sister Ada" in the film.
When writing this script, Schrader had the shadow of Ethan Hawke in his mind, and Hawke's temperament fits almost perfectly with the actor Toler. As a result, he became one of the actors with the highest voices for the best actor in this Venice Film Festival.
View more about First Reformed reviews
