As we walk down the Croisette to find a quieter place to drink, closer to the Grand Hotel where the “Dog Eat Dog” team are staying, we stumble upon a car wreck. There’s a motionless body on the ground and people crying in the background. Two cars are sitting there, damaged. Schrader ends up going ahead of us, scouting the scene. It’s not a moment not far-removed from his script for Martin Scorsese‘s 1999 film “Bringing out The Dead“ with Nicolas Cage’s Manhattan paramedic fighting through his sanity and haunted by the victims he failed to save.
We walk on, hoping there won’t be any casualties this time around, but the scene looks grim.
It’s been 17 years since “Bringing out The Dead,” Scorsese and Schrader’s last of four collaborations they’ve had over the years (“Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “The Last Temptation of Christ” being the three others). With just those four films they’ve built up a legendary cinematic partnership that has had cinephiles hungry for more, but according to Schrader the wait will continue. “Marty and I talk all the time. As far as doing something together again? I wouldn’t rule it out, but I don’t see it in the immediate near future. Marty has his backlog of to-do lists and I have mine. And frankly, I’m not that interested in some Act 3, farewell-tour schtick. I really don’t think anybody would care.”
As we finally arrive at the hotel, we get a patio with three chairs. Schrader orders us wine and beer. We sit, talk about movies, including the infamous spat between Xavier Dolan and the Coens at last year’s Cannes, which resulted in Todd Haynes‘ “Carol” losing the Palme d’Or to “Dheepan.” The festival conversation shifts towards Schrader’s stint on the dramatic jury at Sundance back in 1998, where a young filmmaker debut a film called “Pi.”
“I worked very hard that year to get Darren Aronofsky an award. I thought, well here is a guy that seems to have a good grasp at what it is all about. There was something about his filmmaking that made you think he might be going some place. I think we eventually settled on giving him a [directing] prize, but that was all because of me,” he said.
After Cannes wraps up, Schrader will be headed to Florence to unwind in a house offered to him by none other than Wes Anderson. He’ll need all the rest that he can get because Schrader already has a couple of projects lined up. “I am working on several films, but there is one I am about to do with Ethan Hawke, a very small picture, that is like an American ‘Winter Light.’ It’s about a pastor confronting the fallenness of this world. It’s my attempt, I guess, at ‘transcendental style.’ I think it is going to be a very small, pure, potent picture. I’ve also been offered to remake ‘Shoot The Piano Player,’ but my priority is the Ethan picture.”
Schrader calls it a night and heads out to his room. Wilder stays, drinking his beer and continuing to enjoy the basking in the glow of Cannes, and his experience working with the famed director. “Schrader was 100% solid—loyal from the first beat to the last. And I am loyal to him as well,” he said. “Actually I forgot to mention it to Paul, a buddy of mine from Austria called me the other night saying, ‘Wilder, you’re gonna die, Michael Haneke loves ‘Dog Eat Dog,’ Michael fucking Haneke. I mean can you just imagine him watching ‘Dog Eat Dog’?”
Without hesitation he excuses himself, takes out his phone and calls Schrader who is most likely already in bed at this point, but you can hear the exuberance in his voice. “Michael fucking Haneke, can you imagine his reaction? [In an Austrian accent] Oh yes that was a very good movie.”
“Dog Eat Dog” is still seeking U.S. distribution.