It’s often been said that the porn industry pioneers practices that independent film later adopts, so it’s not too surprising that adult film star James Deen, who stars opposite Lindsay Lohan next month in Paul Schrader’s The Canyons, has taken part in “The 1st Porn Shot on Google Glass.” (I shouldn’t have to tell you that this video is NSFW.) How soon before indie filmmakers follow suit?
by Nick Dawson on Jul 25, 2013Stunning black-and-white photos of movie theaters — old-style palaces and tacky multiplexes alike — sit underneath the credits of The Canyons, the 18th feature from veteran director and screenwriter Paul Schrader. Except rather than evoke the majesty of the 20th century’s dominant art form, they depict its collapse. These theaters are guttered, wrecked, their seats torn out, signage empty, neon fixtures torn and dangling from the ceilings. Some of these theaters — vintage single-screen Art Deco houses — are surely no longer viable in the modern era. The demise of the pictured strip-mall multiplexes, however, is most likely the product […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 18, 2013Paul Schrader presented a screening of Taxi Driver in Toronto last weekend and spoke to the capacity audience of 450 at the Royal Cinema for an hour afterwards about his career and the changing state of filmmaking. As part of the Seventh Art Live Directors Series and presented by The Royal, he also showed a scene from his forthcoming The Canyons, starring Lindsay Lohan. Many in the audience watched Taxi Driver for the first time on the big screen, since many were not even born when the film shocked audiences in 1976. A major critical and box-office success, it launched […]
by Allan Tong on Apr 24, 2013We sent the Fall issue of Filmmaker magazine to the printer last night, and in my Editor’s Letter I riffed on Paul Schrader, who appeared in both our first issue of the magazine as well as its tenth anniversary. The issue you’ll receive in the mail and see on newsstands shortly is our 20th Anniversary issue, and while it doesn’t contain an interview with Schrader, I wrote that it might just as well have. That’s because, once more, he’s reinventing himself, completing a journey that led him from ’70s Hollywood screenwriter to DIY independent filmmaker. That said, the trailer for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 9, 2012Over on the Sundance website, Liz Holm — Kickstarter’s Film Program Director, as well as being a film producer in her own right — has a piece up about The Canyons, the collaboration between director Paul Schrader and novelist Bret Easton Ellis. The project is arguably the most high-profile film to turn to Kickstarter for funding and, understandably given the talent involved, it has already surpassed it’s fundraising goal of $100,000. (As I write this, it’s $40,000+ over its target, with 8 days still to go.) What I think is most interesting about Holm’s piece is not so much her […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 1, 2012