Defending Your Life

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Part of Great Beyonds: The Afterlife on Film film talk series!

Join Jeffrey Bender as he shuffles off this mortal coil and into the realm of the fantastic, the celestial and the downright absurd, in this four-film series exploring cinematic conceptions of the afterlife from a variety of styles, genres and perspectives across film history. It’s everything you wanted to know about the hereafter, but were afraid to ask… all on our big-screen!

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Is there love after death? Acerbic everyman Albert Brooks finds a perfect balance between satirical bite and romantic-comedy charm as the writer, director, and star of this wonderfully warm and imaginative existential fantasy. After he dies suddenly, the hapless advertising executive Daniel Miller (Brooks) finds himself in Judgment City, a gleaming way station where the newly deceased must prove they lived a life of sufficient courage to advance in their journey through the universe. As the self-doubting Daniel struggles to make his case, a budding relationship with the uninhibited Julia (Meryl Streep) offers him a chance to finally feel alive. Buoyed by a pitch-perfect supporting cast that includes Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry, Defending Your Life is a rare feat of personal, philosophical filmmaking that happens to also be divinely entertaining.

Jeffrey Bender

Jeffrey Bender has hosted a number of in-person and online Film Talks with the Westdale, most recently ‘Ride or Die Cinema’. He joins us this fall to host ‘Great Beyonds: The Afterlife on Film’, featuring four essential explorations into the afterlife as interpreted throughout film history, as well as serving as one of the guest speakers for Noirvember, featuring a survey of classic and contemporary film noir.