Paul Schrader felt death closing in, so he made a movie about it

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

CANNES, France (AP) — After a string of hospitalizations for long COVID, Paul Schrader had a realization. “If I’m going to make a film about death,” Schrader told himself, “I’d better hurry up.” The health of the 77-year-old filmmaker has since improved. But that sense of urgency only increased. On Friday, Schrader was to premiere his Russell Banks’ adaptation “Oh, Canada” at the Cannes Film Festival. It extends the prolific chapter of Schrader’s late-in-life filmmaking, and reteams him with Richard Gere, the star of Schrader’s “American Gigolo” some four decades earlier.