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Filmmaker Alexis Lloyd is passionate about the art of improvisation. That element is featured in his new feature Group: The Schopenhauer Effect. Playing through March 19th at New York City’s Quad Cinema, the movie centers on eight people who communicate with each other in a therapy session conducted by Dr. Ezra Hertzfeldt (real life psychoanalyst Dr. Elliot Zeisel). Lloyd talked to Deepest Dream about his movie, which is inspired by Irvin Yalom’s novel The Schopenhauer Cure.
Read more: Cinema And Psychotherapy Collide In Alexis Lloyd’s ‘Group: The Schopenhauer Effect’
The ensemble cast for Group: The Schopenhauer Effect includes Thomas Sadoski, Cara Ronzetti, Ezra Barnes, Teresa Avia Lim, Gabriela Kohen, Elisha Lawson, Lucy Walters, and Bernardo Cubria. All these actors were given room to improvise within the narrative, and a huge part of the film’s verite nature centered around the performance of Elliot Zeisel as Dr. Ezra Hertzfeld.
”I wanted to have a real pro doing this as opposed to an actor playing a pro,” said Alexis Lloyd. “You need training for this. It’s like being a professional musician. If you want to play free jazz. It’s gonna be really horrible if you only have done three, three months or six months of playing the trumpet. You really need a lot of technique, craft, and intelligence to do what Dr. Zeisel does. (He improvised) in his own way.”
CinemAddicts hosts Eric Holmes gave Group: The Schopenhauer Effect high marks, adding its one of his favorite films of this year. Check out his review on this week’s episode:
Running at 119 minutes, Group: The Schopenhauer Effect is currently playing at the Quad Cinema before expanding to select cities across North America. The New York dates are aligned with the annual convereance of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA).
***Full interview:
