Oh Canada Director Paul Schrader decided to reunite with Richard Gere without much thought. After 44 years, they american gigolo Together, for his latest film about a dying draft dodger and documentarian hopes to refresh the record of his life in one final interview.
Schrader’s latest film, which will have its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, stars Gere as Leonard Fife, an American who fled the Vietnam War to Montreal and eventually became a celebrated documentary filmmaker.
But now facing terminal cancer, Fife rose from his death bed and looked into the movie cameras himself, recalling key moments in his life and its many failures and lies. “Any number of actors could knock this out of the park. It’s a great role,” Schrader told hollywood reporter On his film adaptation of Russell Banks’ 2021 novel a foregone conclusion.
“Seeing Anthony Hopkins do this, seeing Jonathan Price and Tommy Lee Jones do this, I thought to myself, Richard [Gere] Old films have never been shown, which will help the film’s popularity and sales,” he said.
But although Keir always brings Oh Canada At the box office, Schrader cast Jacob Elordi to play the younger version of Favre, who at the time was known only as Nate Jacobs in Nate Jacobs . Euphoriaand has yet to come to prominence as Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s film Elvis . Priscilla Biopic.
“We got him (Elordi) for a dime and a nickel for that reason,” Schrader recalled after asking the casting agent who might play the younger version of Gere’s character. “I don’t need a name. I have Richard and that’s enough. But I saw his performance on Zoom and if this was 40 years ago, I would have picked this guy american gigolo,The director added that Elodie and his on-screen charisma mirror the charisma Gere brought to Schrader’s 1980 crime thriller.
Oh CanadaThe film depicts a man contemplating his legacy before his death, touching on important themes such as death, memory and truth. This is partly because Schrader chose to adapt Banksy’s a foregone conclusion The novel is like the famous American writer himself dying of terminal cancer.
“I heard Russell was sick and I should go see him like I do every summer. He called me and said, ‘I can’t do that this summer.’ “I quickly realized the seriousness of the matter.
Bank has written It’s past, The film depicts a terminally ill filmmaker revealing the secrets of his life to his wife and the world when he was healthy. “The irony, of course, is that he died pretty much the way he studied it,” Schrader said of Banks.
He was able to consult his novelist friend via email about adapting the script Oh Canada appeared. Banks died in January 2023 at the age of 82, about two weeks after Schrader completed the script.
A stark film about looking back at life also appealed to Schrader himself as he endured a pandemic-era health scare that saw him hospitalized three times in a year to treat his bronchial ammonia. “The last time I was in the hospital trying to breathe, I thought, maybe this is the end. Maybe COVID-19 will kill me,” he recalled.
Schrader survived, but faced his own mortality. “Obviously, when you’re lying there and thinking that this could be it, I’m also thinking about what I want to do creatively, or whatever. You say to God, I may be dying, but I have a new Thoughts. Can we postpone it for a year?
Fife gave an interview before his death Oh Canada The film is directed by two cinematographers, his former students, played by Michael Imperioli and Caroline Davenas. Always nearby is Fife’s much younger wife Emma (played by Uma Thurman), a dying and abrasive filmmaker who talks about his life through flashbacks mostly involving Elodie .
Schrader recalled an email from the dying Banks, who told the director one day, apparently feeling better, “If I ever write again, I will never write another book about a man who died of cancer. The artist seeks redemption in the book.
"He’s become that character," Oh Canada said the director. Schrader’s film will open at the Roy Thomson Hall on Friday, followed by two more screenings in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday.
