Between The Temples

Ben and Carla embark on a strange May-December romance. Already in her early 70s, Carla will finally perform her bat mitzvah and wants Ben, who she’d previously taught grade school music, to prepare her for it. A cantor now losing his voice, Ben (Jason Schwartzman) became a widower at 40 and is now experiencing the confusion of grief while living with his two Jewish mothers. The couple’s quirky affair seems to disturb everyone in the community (sons, mothers, rabbis, rabbis’ daughters), who all project a false idea of sadness onto them, whether in terms of old age or grief. Where does sadness lie? In the eye of the beholder or in those it sees? Ben and Carla build a strange and beautiful world of their own, full of energy and chemistry. In each scene, the actors move through each individual feeling with wit; watching them illuminate the upstate New York gloom with their gentle sweetness could not be more pleasurable. Shot on celluloid by cinematographer Sean Price Williams, the camerawork doesn’t just follow the couple, but functions as a third interlocutor—from the first slow zoom out of a crazy conversation to the last joyful pan of happiness onto the everlasting winter trees, this film is pure, awkward bliss. (Lucía Salas)

In the presence of Nathan Silver.

Nathan Silver: EXIT ELENA (2012), SOFT IN THE HEAD (2013), UNCERTAIN TERMS (2014), STINKING HEAVEN (2015), ACTOR MARTINEZ (2016, KO- REGIE), THIRST STREET (2017), THE GREAT PRETENDER (2018)