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UNITED STATES | 120 minutes | 1985

Starting on the fateful day of the failed coup d'état that led to the Japanese author’s suicide, this biographical story employs a multi-tracked approach to explain his troubles. Alternating between the artist's early life and reconstructions of his greatest novels, the American director creates a work that is formally explosive and audaciously told, thus upsetting the codes of a classical biopic. Cerebral, and with a sumptuous plastic beauty, this avant-garde proposition is a vibrant tribute to the tormented and complex spirit of Yukio Mishima and his crazy creativity.

Director Paul Schrader will be present

Programs

Wednesday October 10, 2018

Program #178
19:15
Cineplex Odeon Quartier SALLE 10

Paul Schrader

Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a film until he was 18. Although he more than made up for lost time when studying at Calvin College, Columbia University and UCLA's graduate film program, his influences were far removed from those of his contemporaries--Robert Bresson, Yasujirô Ozu and Carl Theodor Dreyer (about whom he wrote a book, "Transcendental Style in Film") rather than Saturday-morning serials. After a period as a film critic (and protégé of Pauline Kael), he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he and his brother, Leonard Schrader (a Japanese expert), were paid the then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, which was consolidated when Martin Scorsese filmed Schrader's script Taxi Driver (1976), written in the early 1970s during a bout of drinking and depression. The success of the film allowed Schrader to start directing his own films, which have been notable for their willingness to take stylistic and thematic risks while still working squarely within the Hollywood system. The most original of his films (which he and many others regard as his best) was the Japanese co-production Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985).

distribution and credits

  • Screenplay Paul Schrader
  • Cast Ken Ogata, Kenji Sawada

contact

  • Janus Films

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