Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada premiered at Cannes this past spring, and although the subject matter, surrounding a dying filmmaker grappling with his own mortality, led to speculation that this was the final film from the aging filmmaker, Schrader is wasting little time setting up his next projects.
Schrader has just begun writing a script that is in the vein of his recent Man in a Room trilogy (First Reformed, The Card Counter, The Master Gardener), but this one follows a philosophy professor who happens to be a pederast. Schrader has outlined the story and just begun writing. He envisions the voice-over a little differently than those previous Bresson-inspired films, he told The Film Stage this weekend at AFI Fest:
“He’s an American philosopher. He’s written a textbook on philosophy. Now he’s writing a book on Spinoza. So instead of having him write in a diary, my idea is have him quoting from his book instead of from his journal, and to weave in his thinking about Spinoza’s philosophy as the voiceover.”
Baruch Spinoza is a 17th-century Dutch philosopher who is known for laying the groundwork for the Enlightenment and modern Pantheism. Schrader’s Man in a Room trilogy features guilt-ridden men who can’t feel absolution is not available to them due to past mistakes. Oscar Isaac’s William Tell was involved in Abu Ghraib in The Card Counter and in The Master Gardener, Joel Edgerton’s Narvel Roth is a former Neo-Nazi hitman in witness protection. A pederast professor somehow ups the ante on the seemingly unredeemable men Schrader has always gravitated toward.
Schrader also hopes to shoot an erotic thriller this coming February. “I had the two actors, but now I’m replacing one of them, and we’ll see what happens.” Schrader was meeting with a potential actress this past Sunday.
Describing the film, Schrader says: “I wanted to do a beauty film. I haven’t done a beauty film in a while. Comfort of Strangers is a beauty film. A really lush, gorgeous film.”
Titled Non Compos Mentis, the film is set in the “world of finance” in New York, Schrader describes it more specifically as a “Malafemmena” noir. “The Black Widow,” he adds. “That’s a cool genre, the girl who just makes men fuck up their lives [laughs].”
On the erotic thriller genre Schrader adds: “Of course, our attitudes toward sexuality have changed. Back in the day, people would buy a ticket to see a woman’s breasts. But that day’s over. [Laughs.]”
Oh, Canada opens on December 6. Watch Schrader and cast’s recent Q&As from the 62nd New York Film Festival below.