Yesterday’s visit to the Rafael Film Center for the Mill Valley Film Festival (mentioned in the previous blog entry) yielded a screening of one of my favorite films ever, attended by its director and producer. Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters is a stunning look at the life, work, and death (and various combinations thereof) of colorful, controversial Japanese author Yukio Mishima. This was a premiere screening of a digitally cleaned up print of the new version released by the Criterion Collection in a very deluxe package from a few months ago. Schrader informed the audience that the film never looked as good, and as a years-long fan of the film I’m inclined to agree.

Two of Schrader’s films are available right here on Jaman, one of his most popular and one of his least-known. American Gigolo continues a loose series (begun in Schrader’s screenplay for Taxi Driver) of tales of “these fringe characters on the edges of society,” tracking superficial ladies’ man Julian Kay (Richard Gere) through a neon-lit conspiracy of eroticism and murder.

American Gigolo

Sex and death collide once again (as throughout Schrader’s work) in Forever Mine, as an illicit affair between a woman and a cabana boy (Gretchen Mol and Joseph Fiennes, respectively) turns into a violent, ongoing duel between the woman’s lover and her tough politician husband (Ray Liotta). The film was never released theatrically, and Jaman is pleased to give Forever Mine (called by Salon “a sort of career peak” for Schrader) a shot at the audience it deserves here.

Forever Mine

I’ve opened a thread on the forums for anyone who wants to talk about Schrader’s work. If you check out American Gigolo or Forever Mine, why not pop by and tell us what you thought?

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Reviews, David, Festivals, Bloggers, Films on Fire, Filmmakers!, Look! New!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.