Coming soon...

To some, it may appear contradictory for a blog entitled "Sola Gratia - Fide" to contain a post such as the one below, picturing Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976).

To help explain, here are Tarkovsky's words about a film I've mentioned a few times, Andrei Rublev:

“This was the theme of Andrei Rublev. It looks at first sight as if the cruel truth of life as he observes it is in crying contradiction with the harmonious ideal of his work. The crux of the question, however, is that the artist cannot express the moral ideal of his time unless he touches all its running sores, unless he suffers and lives these sores himself. That is how art triumphs over grim, ‘base’ truth, clearly recognizing it for what it is.”[i]

So such a declaration of violence as Taxi Driver is, for me, incredibly truthful and powerful, not in itself, but for what it means to me.

---

[i] Sculpting in Time, p. 168.

Travis Bickle

"The clock sprig cannot be wound continually tighter. As
the earth moves toward the sun, Travis Bickle moves toward
violence."

-Paul Schrader, "Taxi Driver"

Coming Soon...

coming soon...

Andrei Rublev

Because I'm sick and tired of talking to people who stare at me blankly when I say "Tarkovsky," here's the opening scene of Andrei Rublev.

Watch This

If you like looking at things, look at these.

Andrei Rublev
Nostalghia
Notre Musique
Ran
Bringing Out the Dead


Only watch these if you enjoy looking at things. The last three are available at Blockbuster. (Godard, Kurosawa, and Scorsese.) The first two, forget it, the day Blockbuster carries a Tarkovsky film is...the day...something very unlikely happens. These are all popular films by well-known directors, though it's apparent to me that writer Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) is the real force behind Bringing Out the Dead, which is probably the most accessible film on this list for American viewers.