The Cathedral

Ricky D’Ambrose is a writer and director based in New York City. His first feature, Notes on an Appearance, premiered at the 68th Berlinale in 2018. His short films have been selected in festivals such as New Directors/New Films and the Jeonju International Film Festival. His second feature film, The Cathedral, was selected at the Biennale College Cinema in Venice in 2021, then Sundance.

 

NOTICE OF THE SELECTION COMITEE

By telling the lengthy story of a modern American family, Ricky d'Ambrose dares to take on the narrative scope often associated with a certain idea of classicism. But this storytelling ambition is coupled with a minimalist and almost maniacally precise approach to the "mise-en-scène", all still life and extended silences. A saga anchored in the capitalist realism of Mark Fisher (the director's alter ego–Jesse Damrosch– was born a few weeks before the stock market crash of October 1987) whose emotional consequences have never seemed so prominent: money matters and the father's obsessive quest for success are two of the elements that will deeply divide the family; The Cathedral - a pure Bressonian epic - could be the most shattering tomb erected in memory of the 20th century.

Victor Bournérias