Paul Schrader’s 'First Reformed' is an electrifying portrait of spiritual despair. Its power comes from its fusion of a 'man-in-a-room' existential crisis with a slow-burn, austere style. These five foreign films share that same cinematic DNA.
Winter Light (1963) by Ingmar Bergman
If 'First
Reformed' has a direct cinematic ancestor, it's Bergman's devastating 'Winter Light'. The film follows Tomas, a rural pastor, through a few agonizing hours as his faith completely unravels. Like Ethan Hawke's Reverend Toller, Tomas is consumed by personal grief and a crisis of purpose, made worse by his inability to offer comfort to a parishioner terrified by the state of the world (in this case, the nuclear threat). Both films confront 'God's silence' with a stark, chilly aesthetic, finding little comfort in easy answers and instead dwelling in the profound difficulty of believing in anything when the world offers so much evidence to the contrary. Schrader essentially remade this film's core conflict, updating the existential threat from the Cold War to climate change.
Diary of a Country Priest (1951) by Robert Bresson
Paul Schrader literally wrote the book on the style of this film. His seminal text, 'Transcendental Style in Film', centers on directors like Robert Bresson. 'Diary of a Country Priest' is the clear stylistic blueprint for 'First Reformed'. It tells the story of a sickly, isolated young priest in a new parish who is met with suspicion and hostility. Much like Reverend Toller, he documents his anguish and fading health in a journal, with his narration providing a window into his spiritual torment. Bresson's approach is defined by its austerity: impassive acting, a sparse soundtrack, and a focus on mundane details that accumulate with spiritual weight. It’s a film about suffering, faith, and the agonizing search for grace in a world that seems to have none.
Ordet (1955) by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Another director from Schrader’s 'Transcendental Style' pantheon, Carl Theodor Dreyer, created one of cinema's most profound and challenging films about faith with 'Ordet' ('The Word'). Set among farming families in rural Denmark, the film explores different forms of faith, from the rigid and judgmental to the simple and childlike. At its center is Johannes, a son who has been driven mad by studying Kierkegaard and now believes he is Jesus Christ. The film's slow, deliberate pace and stark, beautifully composed black-and-white photography create a hypnotic, almost hallowed atmosphere. While less about a single man's despair, 'Ordet' shares with 'First Reformed' a deeply serious engagement with the possibility of the divine interrupting the mundane, culminating in a final act that, like Toller's, pushes belief to its absolute limit.
Ida (2013) by Paweł Pawlikowski
Schrader himself said that a conversation with 'Ida' director Paweł Pawlikowski incited him to finally make 'First Reformed'. It’s easy to see why. Shot in stunning black and white and a restrictive 4:3 aspect ratio, 'Ida' has a visual stillness and formal rigor that echoes Schrader’s film. The story follows Anna, a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, before taking her vows, discovers she is a Jewish orphan. Her subsequent journey with her cynical, hard-drinking aunt to uncover her family's past becomes a profound test of identity and faith. Like Toller, Anna is a quiet, contemplative figure forced to confront a world of sin and historical trauma that shakes the foundations of her spiritual convictions. It's a modern masterpiece of the contemplative style.
Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky
While its sci-fi premise is a world away from a small church in upstate New York, Andrei Tarkovsky' own 'Stalker' is a spiritual cousin to 'First Reformed'. The film is a metaphysical journey into 'the Zone,' a mysterious and dangerous area where a 'Room' is said to grant one's innermost desires. A guide, the 'Stalker,' leads two clients—a cynical writer and a pragmatic scientist—on this perilous quest. Tarkovsky’s signature long takes and slow, meditative pace demand patience, drawing the viewer into a state of contemplation. The film is a profound exploration of faith, cynicism, hope, and despair in a world that seems to have lost its soul. The Stalker himself is a man driven by a desperate faith, acting as a spiritual guide for others in a ruined world, a role that deeply resonates with Reverend Toller's own tortured sense of purpose.
