LE MONDE'S OPINION - MUST SEE

What a singular title, if you stop to think about it, for Paul Schrader's new film! Hollywood irredentist and illustrator of American damnation as a screenwriter (Taxi Driver, 1976) and director (Blue Collar, 1978): What motivates this Calvinist obsessed with violence and great contemptor of the established order – in a word this quintessential American – to suddenly talk to us about Canada? The geographical apostrophe is never neutral. It sends out, as one might say, a symbolic message. The first thought that comes to mind is that Schrader, in a very classical opposition, is thinking of Canada as the peaceful, civilized antithesis of the United States. Nothing of the sort. Schrader, as scathing as ever, thinks of Canada as we think of death, more precisely of the predestined destination that is his (and our own) death, as well as the pretty embroidery of illusions and lies that precedes it, forging what we call our lives.

That is what this unsuspected disciple of Blaise Pascal and master of the New World underworld, aged 78, himself suggested exactly a year ago, when we caught up with him at the festival d'Avellino, near Naples, which was paying tribute to him. "I had a bad year healthwise. I ended up in the hospital three times with Covid, bronchial pneumonia. I'm 70%, 80% recovered. I think I should not be making a film about a young woman who is a sexual miscreant. I should be making a film about dying. Particularly with my health, if I am gonna make a film about dying, I better hurry up." he said bluntly. To this end, he adapted the novel of the same name by his friend Russell Banks, the great novelist of American decay, who was seriously ill at the time and has since passed away.

You have 63.4% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.