Late Fame
Like Billy Joel's Piano Man or a late-night chat in a smoke-filled dorm room, Late Fame tells the story of Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe), once a promising experimental poet, now quietly settled into the routine of life as a postal worker. That quiet is broken when a young fan appears, clutching Ed’s long-forgotten poetry tome and speaking with reverence. Soon, the fan recruits him as a mentor to a group of bright young intellectuals, offering Ed an unexpected shot at creative rediscovery. Kent Jones (Diane, 9th AFF) reimagines an Arthur Schnitzler story with warmth, irony and a distinctly New York sensibility. Though rooted in Vienna, the tale here breathes Manhattan with its faded counterculture haunts and ever-changing, eccentric spirit. In Jones’s lens, Greenwich Village and SoHo remain safe havens for unfulfilled artists and their stubborn hopes. But unlike the days of Ginsberg or Ashbery, ambition and reality occupy separate orbits in Late Fame, forcing modern New Yorkers to lead double lives.
Kent Jones
Kent Jones is a director, screenwriter, and devoted cinephile. Before stepping behind the camera, he made a name for himself as a sharp-eyed observer of cinema - a film critic for the legendary Cahiers du Cinéma and Film Comment, and later the programming director of the New York Film Festival. He also worked as Martin Scorsese’s archivist, creating several documentaries under the Martin Scorsese Presents banner. While deeply engaged with cinema’s past, Jones is equally committed to shaping its present; his feature Diane moved audiences at the 9th edition of the American Film Festival.
Filmography
1999 My Voyage to Italy / Historia kina włoskiego według Martina Scorsese (doc.)
2004 Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty (doc.)
2007 Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadow (doc.)
2010 A Letter to Elia (doc.)
2013 Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian / Jimmy P. (doc.)
2015 Hitchcock/Truffaut (doc.)
2018 Diane
2025 Późna sława / Late Fame
Cast & Crew
