Oh, Canada movie storyline. The story delves into the life of a tormented writer on the brink of death, a Canadian-American leftist who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Leonard Fife (Richard Gere in the modern day, Jacob Elordi in flashbacks) is a terminally ill writer and filmmaker who has agreed to have his final testament of his life filmed by documentary filmmakers Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), but proves to be an unreliable narrator due to his failing and distorted memory.
Oh, Canada is a 2024 American drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader, based on the 2021 novel Foregone by Russell Banks. It stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli, Jacob Elordi, Victoria Hill, and Kristine Froseth. This marked the second collaboration between Gere and Schrader after American Gigolo as well as Schrader’s second adaptation of a novel by Banks after 1997’s Affliction. The film had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2024.
Oh, Canada: Paul Schrader’s puzzle film
A figure of the New Hollywood, at 77-years of age, Paul Schrader is continuing his path as an unfettered filmmaker, in an American industry that is ever more restrictive. The proof of this is Oh, Canada, a sparse work adapted from the Russell Banks novel, for which the American filmmaker has cast Richard Gere.
Fifty years after his debut alongside Martin Scorsese with Taxi Driver (1975), co-writing the script and dialogues, Paul Schrader, a screenwriter-turned-filmmaker, still has the vitality of a young upstart. The proof of that lies in the triptych made up of First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021) and Master Gardener (2023), his three most recent feature films, which saw the director reconnect with the narrative structures of his early films and which describe the search for salvation of solitary characters eaten away by internal abysses.
Oh, Canada represents a shift in register as Paul Schrader has adapted the final novel of the American author Russell Banks, who died in January 2023, just a few months before shooting began. In 1997, Schrader had already adapted one of his novels when making Afflictions, which saw James Coburn win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Structured as a puzzle, by the assembly of scattered memories and assorted formats, Oh, Canada tells the story of a famous and controversial filmmaker at the end of his life, and of one of his disciples, who has come to his bedside to hear his final words. Like a lot of characters in Paul Schrader films, the main character is haunted by the army.
Shooting this film in only 17 days, the American filmmaker cast Richard Gere, who had worked with him on American Gigolo (1980), and Uma Thurman, who hasn’t appeared on the big screen since The House That Jack Built, Lars Von Trier’s feature film screened Out of Competition in 2018.
Oh, Canada (2024)
Directed by: Paul Schrader
Starring: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman, Victoria Hill, Michael Imperioli, Penelope Mitchell, Kristine Froseth, Zach Shaffer, Caroline Dhavernas, Joshua Bess, Megan MacKenzie
Screenplay by: Paul Schrader
Production Design by: Deborah Jensen
Cinematography by: Andrew Wonder
Film Editing by: Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.
Costume Design by: Aubrey Laufer
Set Decoration by: Mary Fellows, Connie Kourtsounis
Art Direction by: Jurasama Arunchai
Music by: Phosphorescent
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Top Film Distribution
Release Date: May 17, 2024 (Cannes)
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