the whole art as one long attempt to be heard — "his most serious wish was: to…" · S6

Stripped of the scholarship and the Foundations, the father's entire filmmaking life comes down to a single communicative act he could never otherwise perform: he spent his last sober months building one entertainment compelling enough to make the silent son open his mouth — even just to ask for more — a medium in which the two of them could finally converse. The lethal cartridge was, at bottom, an apology engineered to be received: a way to say I am so very sorry and actually have it land. Every channel he had tried failed, so he tried the only one left, and his deepest wish was the humblest one — to entertain, meaning simply to reach the boy. [sweep · shared-ground entertainment-self fathers-sons]