CANNES ā After a string of hospitalizations for long COVID, Paul Schrader had a realization.
āIf Iām going to make a film about death,ā Schrader told himself, āIād better hurry up.ā
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The health of the 77-year-old filmmaker, whose films and scripts have covered half a century of American movies, from āTaxi Driverā to āFirst Reformed,ā has since improved. But that sense of urgency only increased when Russell Banks, a friend of Schraderās since he adapted Banksā āAfflictionā into the 1997 film, began ailing. Banks died in 2023.
Schrader resolved to turn Banksā 2021 novel āForegoneā into a film. At the time, he imagined it would be his last. But Schrader, who's been as prolific as ever in the past decade, has said that before.
In 2017, he surmised that āFirst Reformedā was his final cinematic statement. Then he made 2021ās āThe Card Counter.ā And, after that came 2022ās āMaster Gardener.ā
āThe irony is every time you think, āWell, thatās about it,ā you have a new idea,ā Schrader told The Associated Press in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival. āAnd you have to write the new idea and make the new film. āOK, God, put that thing on hold. Iāll be back to you when Iāve finished my film.āā
Schrader, chuckling, adds: āIām going to start a new company called Post-Mortem Cinema.ā
On Friday, Schrader was to premiere his Banksā adaptation, now titled āOh, Canada,ā at Cannes. Itās his first time back in competition in 36 years. And, particularly given that heās joined this year by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas ā all of them central figures of the fabled New Hollywood ā Schraderās Cannes return comes with echoes of the heyday of ā70s American moviemaking. āTaxi Driver,ā which Schrader wrote, won the Palme dāOr here in 1976.
Schrader, though, allows for only so much nostalgia.
āItās gotten aggrandized in the collective memory. There were a lot of bad films. There were a lot of bad players,ā Schrader says of the ā70s. āHowever, it was the birth of the self-starting movement in cinema. So people like George and Francis and I, all film-school graduates like Marty, we all started our careers in this environment. That was a kind of a golden moment, but that doesnāt mean all the films were golden.ā
āOh, Canada," which is seeking a distributor, is a kind of bookend to one of the films from that era: the 1980 neo-noir āAmerican Gigolo.ā Schrader reteams with Richard Gere decades after āAmerican Gigoloā made Gere a star. Until now, Schrader says, the two hadnāt much discussed reuniting.
āRichard had been developing some mannerisms that I wasnāt entirely comfortable with as a director, and roles I wasnāt comfortable with,ā Schrader says. āI was thinking more in terms of Ethan (Hawke) and Oscar (Isaac).ā
But the idea of āOh, Canadaā as a kind of spiritual sequel to āAmerican Gigoloā appealed to him. In the film, Gere stars as a revered Canadian filmmaker named Leonard Fife who, nearly on his deathbed, grouchily sits for an interview with documentary filmmakers. His wife (Uma Thurman) watches on as Leonard tells his life story, seen in flashbacks with Jacob Elordi playing the younger Fife, in the 1960s. We have the impression that Fife, who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War, is speaking more honestly than ever before.
āI thought the dying Gigolo ā that put some spin on it. People are going to be interested in that, even though itās not the same character at all,ā Schrader says. āI could see that he had come out of retirement. He needs this, therefore heāll do it for nothing.ā
Schrader approached Gere with a few stipulations.
āI said, āIāll send it to you on three conditions: One, that you read it right away. Two, that I get an answer in two weeks. And, three, that you understand my financial parameters,āā Schrader says. āHe agreed. I said the same thing to (Robert) De Niro. Bob said, āWell, I agree to the first two but not the third one.āā
āSo I didnāt send the script to Bob,ā Schrader says, laughing.
Since the 2013 film āThe Canyons,ā which he directed from a Bret Easton Ellis script, Schrader has found a way to make the economics of independent filmmaking work for him.
āPeople thought that was all a kind of desperate career failure, but it was a glimpse into a new world. It was a trial run of how you do a film yourself," says Schrader. āAfter that, I knew that you could make a film and get final cut. You could say to an investor: āIām not going to make you rich ā get that dog out of your head. But I think Iām going to make you whole. And Iām going to give you a credit and Iām going to put you on a red carpet somewhere. You could put your money into toasters or tires, or you could put it into this film.āā
The significant caveat to that, Schrader says, is that he came up in the old system of Hollywood. He's not sure the same strategy could work for someone less established in today's digital landscape.
āI got my head above the crowd when there was only 400 people in the room,ā he says. āNow thereās 40,000 people in the room.ā
But few filmmakers remain as engaged with current cinema as Schrader. He goes at least once a week to the movies and often posts brief reviews on his Facebook page. Jane Schoenbrun of āI Saw the TV Glow,ā he recently wrote, is āhands down the most original voice in film in the last decade.ā He liked the tennis drama āChallengers" ("Zendaya is a star") but wrote: āThe studios would have never let this slight a story run so long ā on the other hand, the studios arenāt making this movie anymore.ā
āYou usually go to the movies because itās something you want to see in a crowd," Schrader says. āLike, I went to see āCocaine Bearā because I knew it would be great to see with an audience.ā
āItās not a particularly good time for film," Schrader concludes as the interview winds down. āItās not a bad time. Itās very easy to get a film made. Itās very hard to make a living.ā