Killers of the Flower Moon: “Spending 3.5 hours in the company of an idiot is a long time”
Director Paul Schrader believes that Leonardo DiCaprio should have played the role of the future FBI investigator.
While in Italy, where he was the guest of honor at the Laceno d’Oro Festival, Paul Schrader granted an interview to the correspondent of World. The opportunity for the American director to discuss his next film, Oh Canadafor which he reunited with Richard Gere 43 years later American Gigolo and which he hopes to present at Cannes. But also to give his opinion on cinema and pop culture, as he does regularly on his Facebook page.
At 77 years old, Schrader does not have his tongue in his pocket. And the screenwriter of Taxi Driver doesn’t hesitate to give his opinion frankly, even when it comes to his friends. Asked about the recent films of his New Hollywood colleagues, he did not hesitate to scratch (gently) Killers of the Flower Moonthe latest feature film by his friend Martin Scorsese.
“Marty (Scorsese) compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would rather be the type to paint Renaissance frescoes. Give him 200 million dollars (180 million euros), a good film will inevitably come out of it. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop, in Killers of the Flower Moon, rather than that of the imbecile. Spending three and a half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time. See that nasty wound on my finger? This is Marty’s final contribution to my existence. I had dinner with him three days ago. One of his dogs bit me. What an asshole! (He laughs.)”
Schrader knows, DiCaprio was originally supposed to play Tom White, the agent who investigated the series of murders that decimated the Osage population in the 1920s. And Killers of the Flower Moon takes place from his point of view, as in David Grann’s book. But it was the actor himself who convinced Scorsese to rework the script by putting the couple formed by Ernest and Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone) at the center, leaving the role of Tom White to Jesse Plemmons. Manipulated by his uncle William King Hale (Robert de Niro), Ernest appears to be a simpleton suffering through events despite his love for his wife.
During the interview, Paul Schrader said he loved barbie And Oppenheimeralso talks about his wait for the next Francis Ford Coppola (“He sold his vineyards to film MegalopolisI can not wait to see it“), his passion for Taylor Swift (“She is unique“), tackle Napoleon (“Joaquin Phoenix is the least charismatic actor ever“) and judges some television series:
“I discovered Jacob Elordi, whom I have just directed in Oh, Canadathanks to Euphoria. And A Spy Among Friends, about the biggest scandal in British espionage, is extraordinary. I also watch bad series, like The Gilded Age. This escalation of costumes and extras distracts me.”
Finally, Schrader talks about Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film, The Movie Criticconfirming that the latter will once again have fun rewriting history: “Quentin will insert extracts from films from the 1970s. And he will also make his own versions of films from that era. He asked me for permission to shoot the end of Legitimate violence (1977), by John Flynn, as I wrote it in the original screenplay – before it was completely rewritten and watered down.”
