Late Fame

What would it be like, after a brief period as a published poet and then decades of anonymity, to achieve the ‘late fame’ of rediscovery? Willem Dafoe is superb as the ex-writer lured into joining a young team of hopeful artists in New York.

“Seasons collide.” Ed Saxberger can’t get beyond these first two words of his new poem, yet they remain eloquent of what’s happening to him. Two seasons indeed collide for Ed: the late 1970s when he was an up-and-coming New York poet with an acclaimed book; and today when, after decades of humbly working in a post office, he suddenly finds himself rediscovered by a small cabal of young, aspiring litterateurs. Swept into this group, he is especially attracted by an enigmatic, charismatic actor-singer, Gloria (Greta Lee).

Kent Jones has been associated with IFFR in several roles since the 1990s: critic, documentarian, and associate of Scorsese. Late Fame, his second fiction feature after Diane (2018), is a surprising film for such an avid cinephile to make: direct and unadorned, superbly acted, free of homages to other filmmakers, it is built upon affectionate, subtle, sometimes wry observation. Inspired by an Arthur Schnitzler novella, the script by Samy Burch (May December, 2023) explores differences in class, privilege and generational sensibility.

– Adrian Martin