A director, a committed and respected intellectual figure, on the verge of death, intends to face his past. At all costs. With Oh, Canadain theaters Wednesday December 18, Paul Schrader brings to the screen this eponymous testamentary novel by Russell Banks, the second by the American writer who died in January 2023, after Affliction in 1997.
There he found Richard Gere, whom he had directed in his first major role, American Gigoloin 1980. If the time is not for euphoria in Oh, Canadaa film about a filmmaker at the end of his career, in a situation of disability, undermined by illness, Paul Schrader distills a scent of independence and integrity, like its author.
Prolific director of films that marked their time (Hardcore, The Feline, Mishima), Paul Schrader shines more with his talents as a screenwriter (Obsession, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Mosquito Coast). The presence of Richard Gere in a major role undoubtedly has a lot to do with the thickness of Oh, Canada and its presence in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last May.
The film indeed shines with its interpretation, which Schrader had the good idea of associating with Uma Thurman in the role of his wife.
Famous documentary filmmaker living in Canada, Leonard Fife (Richard Gere), condemned to cancer and in a wheelchair, grants a last interview to one of his students, in front of his wife (Uma Thurman), whose presence is essential for him to make his final confessions.
Paul Schrader seems to have recognized himself in this portrait of an American filmmaker who evokes the reasons for his departure to Canada, after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.
Denouncer of several acts of corruption in his documentaries, Leonard Fife has thus become a major figure of the American left. The film rests largely on the shoulders of a touching and invested Richard Gere and on all levels.
A film without pomp, which draws all its substance from the personality of Leonard Fife, its committed filmmaker, Oh, Canada proves to be highly political, by this uncompromising personality. What emerges is a critical vision of the United States, in which the filmmaker recognized himself following Russell Banks, where humanism would have dissolved into an individualist ideology which turns on itself, emptyly.
Genre: Drama
Director : Paul Schrader
Actors: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman
Pays : UNITED STATES
Duration : 1h35
Sortie : December 18, 2024
Distributer : Arp Selection
Synopsis : A famous Canadian documentary filmmaker, condemned by illness, grants a final interview to one of his former students, to finally tell the whole truth about what his life was like. A confession filmed before the eyes of his last wife…
