SEMINCI dedicates a retrospective to Nathan Silver, indie master of melodrama, premiering his latest film ‘Between the Temples’

• The cycle, which will screen five titles from Silver’s filmography, has opened with the Spanish premiere of his most recent film, Between the Temples (2024)

Valladolid, 21 October 2024. The 69th Valladolid International Film Festival (SEMINCI) continues its commitment to new independent cinema from the United States and has dedicated a retrospective to one of its most original voices today, Nathan Silver. Considered an indie master of melodrama, Silver’s work offers profound character studies (often played by his family and friends), many of them on the margins of society and in the midst of complex existential moments. ‘I think every film, even if it’s fiction, has a documentary component,’ he acknowledged.

The New York director, screenwriter and producer has come to Valladolid to present the five feature films selected: Soft in the Head (2013), Uncertain Terms (2014), Stinking Heaven (2015), The Great Pretender (2018), as well as his latest film, Between the Temples. The comedy features Jason Schwartzman, a regular actor in Wes Anderson’s films, and cult actress Carol Kane (Annie Hall). ‘The film is a tribute to Kane through one of the most unclassifiable love stories of recent times,’ said Eulàlia Iglesias, a member of the SEMINCI selection committee, at the presentation of the film.

Between the Temples brings together and expands the director’s usual interests and concerns. In a kind of update of Hal Ashby‘s Harold and Maude, the story follows Ben, a synagogue cantor who loses his voice due to a crisis of faith caused by the death of his wife. His life seems stagnant until Carla, his former music teacher at school, signs up for his Bat Mitzvah preparation classes. An unexpected chemistry develops between the two of them, leading to a comedy that is both romantic and absurd.

On the origins of the project and his approach to religion, Silver said: ‘I wanted to make a documentary about my mother. She was 65 at the time and was going to do her Bat Mitzvah. And it really struck a chord with me because our family has never been observant. She brought me up in a Judaism, and it was more of a cultural thing that had to do with a Jewish sense of humour. So from there came the idea of an older woman who wants to perform this ceremony at a late stage and ends up finding something unexpected in the cantor.

In praise of form

One of the fundamental features of Nathan Silver’s films is his interest in formal experimentation, using different formats, from 16mm (Soft in the Head) to home video from the 80s and 90s (Stinking Heaven), and playing with elements such as photography and editing. He collaborates regularly with Sean Price Williams, a renowned cinematographer who participated with his debut film, The Sweet East, in the Official Section last year at SEMINCI.

On working with Price Williams on Between the Temples, Silver said: ‘The film is shot on 16mm. It’s been fifteen years or so since I shot on film, but I felt that to reflect Carla’s spirit I needed an analogue format rather than digital. I feel this has allowed the character’s sensibilities to be reflected in the film’.

Music also plays a central role in his filmography, something Silver has emphasised in the case of Between the Temples. ‘The musical part became more and more important. Originally we were going to have a contemporary composer, but that didn’t work out, so we had to think about the music we were going to use. For me it was a bit about finding the tunes that Ben might have listened to when he was a kid. And, of course, there’s Joanna Sternberg‘s song, A Country Dance. The lyrics reflect a lot of what we see in the film and I think English-speaking audiences can really connect with that.’

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