Paul Schrader Felt Death Closing In, So He Made a Movie about It

 Director Paul Schrader poses for portrait photographs for the film "Oh, Canada", at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)
Director Paul Schrader poses for portrait photographs for the film "Oh, Canada", at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)
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Paul Schrader Felt Death Closing In, So He Made a Movie about It

 Director Paul Schrader poses for portrait photographs for the film "Oh, Canada", at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)
Director Paul Schrader poses for portrait photographs for the film "Oh, Canada", at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)

After a string of hospitalizations for long COVID, Paul Schrader had a realization.

“If I’m going to make a film about death,” Schrader told himself, “I’d better hurry up.”

The health of the 77-year-old filmmaker, whose films and scripts have covered half a century of American movies, from “Taxi Driver” to “First Reformed,” has since improved. But that sense of urgency only increased when Russell Banks, a friend of Schrader’s since he adapted Banks’ “Affliction” into the 1997 film, began ailing. Banks died in 2023.

Schrader resolved to turn Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone” 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 “First Reformed” was his final cinematic statement. Then he made 2021’s “The Card Counter.” And, after that came 2022’s “Master Gardener.”

“The irony is every time you think, ‘Well, that’s about it,’ you have a new idea,” Schrader told The Associated Press in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival.

On Friday, Schrader was to premiere his Banks’ adaptation, now titled “Oh, Canada,” at Cannes. It’s his first time back in competition in 36 years. And, particularly given that he’s joined this year by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas — all of them central figures of the fabled New Hollywood — Schrader’s Cannes return comes with echoes of the heyday of ’70s American moviemaking. “Taxi Driver,” which Schrader wrote, won the Palme d’Or here in 1976.

Schrader, though, allows for only so much nostalgia.

“It’s gotten aggrandized in the collective memory. There were a lot of bad films. There were a lot of bad players,” Schrader says of the ’70s. “However, 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 doesn’t mean all the films were golden.”

“Oh, Canada,” which is seeking a distributor, is a kind of bookend to one of the films from that era: the 1980 neo-noir “American Gigolo.” Schrader reteams with Richard Gere decades after “American Gigolo” made Gere a star. Until now, Schrader says, the two hadn’t much discussed reuniting.

“Richard had been developing some mannerisms that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with as a director, and roles I wasn’t comfortable with,” Schrader says. “I was thinking more in terms of Ethan (Hawke) and Oscar (Isaac).”

But the idea of “Oh, Canada” as a kind of spiritual sequel to “American Gigolo” 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.

“I thought the dying Gigolo — that put some spin on it. People are going to be interested in that, even though it’s not the same character at all,” Schrader says. “I could see that he had come out of retirement. He needs this, therefore he’ll do it for nothing.”

Schrader approached Gere with a few stipulations.

“I said, ‘I’ll 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,’” Schrader says. “He agreed. I said the same thing to (Robert) De Niro. Bob said, ‘Well, I agree to the first two but not the third one.’”

“So I didn’t send the script to Bob,” Schrader says, laughing.

Since the 2013 film “The Canyons,” which he directed from a Bret Easton Ellis script, Schrader has found a way to make the economics of independent filmmaking work for him.

“People 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. “After that, I knew that you could make a film and get final cut. You could say to an investor: ‘I’m not going to make you rich — get that dog out of your head. But I think I’m going to make you whole. And I’m going to give you a credit and I’m 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.’”

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.

“I got my head above the crowd when there was only 400 people in the room,” he says. “Now there’s 40,000 people in the room.”

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 “I Saw the TV Glow,” he recently wrote, is “hands down the most original voice in film in the last decade.” He liked the tennis drama “Challengers” (“Zendaya is a star”) but wrote: “The studios would have never let this slight a story run so long — on the other hand, the studios aren’t making this movie anymore.”

“You usually go to the movies because it’s something you want to see in a crowd,” Schrader says. “Like, I went to see ‘Cocaine Bear’ because I knew it would be great to see with an audience.”

“It’s not a particularly good time for film,” Schrader concludes as the interview winds down. “It’s not a bad time. It’s very easy to get a film made. It’s very hard to make a living.”



How Lewis Hamilton and Apple Brought F1 Racing to the Movie Screen 

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari waves to the crowd on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Getty Images/AFP)
Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari waves to the crowd on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Getty Images/AFP)
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How Lewis Hamilton and Apple Brought F1 Racing to the Movie Screen 

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari waves to the crowd on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Getty Images/AFP)
Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari waves to the crowd on the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Getty Images/AFP)

Racing legend Lewis Hamilton, a producer on an upcoming movie starring Brad Pitt as a fictional Formula 1 driver, wanted the film to show the reality of what it looks, feels and sounds like to speed around a track at 200 miles per hour.

To avoid having Apple's "F1 The Movie" seem "faked" by Hollywood, Hamilton provided input on details such as when drivers should brake or shift gears. The film will be released in theaters by Warner Bros on June 27.

"I really wanted to make sure the authenticity was there, and it worked for both the younger and the older audience, and then making sure that the racing was true to what it is," Hamilton said in an interview with Reuters Television.

"All the other drivers, all the teams, are relying on me to make sure that it does," the seven-time world champion added.

In the movie, Pitt plays a driver who comes out of retirement to mentor a young hotshot portrayed by Damson Idris. Co-stars include Javier Bardem and Kerry Condon.

Portions of the film were shot during real-life F1 events in Abu Dhabi, Mexico City and other Grand Prix stops. The filmmakers would shoot on the tracks during short breaks in the races. Pitt and Idris drove themselves in professional race cars at high speeds.

Before filming started, Hamilton said he met with Pitt at a racetrack in Los Angeles so he could size up the actor's driving skills.

"I really wanted to see, can you actually drive?" Hamilton said. A longtime motorcycle rider and racing fan, Pitt showed a baseline ability at that point that made Hamilton comfortable.

"He already had the knack," Hamilton said, which the actor further developed through weeks of intense training. "He really went in deep," Hamilton said.

"F1" was directed by Joseph Kosinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the team that put together the thrilling fighter-jet scenes in 2022 blockbuster film "Top Gun: Maverick."

For "F1," they needed new cameras that would work in race cars, which can be slowed down by extra weight.

Producing partner Apple, which began releasing movies in 2019, was able to help.

The company used some of its iPhone technology to adapt a camera system typically used in real F1 cars during TV broadcasts. The hardware looked like a traditional F1 camera but delivered the high-resolution video that the filmmakers wanted for the big screen.

"This movie was just a great example of putting the whole of the company behind a movie," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said. "We designed the camera that went into the car to capture the incredible driving experience. It makes you feel like you're actually sitting in the car and experiencing what Brad is experiencing."

Cook said he felt the movie showcased the athleticism required to rise to the elite ranks of F1 driving. Hamilton said he had encouraged more examples of the sport's physical challenges. Drivers can lose five or 10 pounds, he said, from the exertion during a race.

"You have to be able to show that part of it. You're training. You're conditioning your body," Hamilton said. "The car, it beats you up."