Please consider supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith/membership In this long-form conversation, we look at how Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence applies to cinema — and what it might reveal about modern filmmakers. Bloom argued that strong artists are “born in debt,” and must struggle against the overwhelming presence of their creative fathers. What happens when we apply this idea to movies? From Alfred Hitchcock to David Lynch, from Paul Thomas Anderson to Quentin Tarantino, we trace how directors wrestle with their influences — escaping them, misreading them, and sometimes swallowing them whole. We discuss: Bloom’s concept of “creative misprision” The idea of artistic “fathers” in film history Whether originality is still possible The 90s video store generation of directors The  ...