The first thing Paul Schrader wanted to talk about after the Ebertfest screening of his ambitious 1985 "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" was his youthful fascination with the primitive rite of "suicidal blood sacrifice." That's what he said his script for "Taxi Driver" was rooted in -- and, no wonder, since he had been raised a strict Calvinist (is that redundant?) and, as he put it, "Christianity is a blood cult" that glorifies sacrificial suicide. In "Mishima" it's the act of seppuku; in "Raging Bull" it's boxing; in "The Last Temptation of Christ" it's crucifixion... To writer-director Schrader, they're all manifestations of the same bloody thing.
Initially, he said, he doing doing a film about "another semi-literate American" and martyr figure, singer Hank Williams, but decided he was too much like Travis Bickle. When faced with all the music clearance problems, and the prospect of writing about another white American from the underclass, he chose instead to "go clear to the other end of the bookshelf" -- "to the Japanese, the artist, the homosexual." Inspiration, he said, is just another word for problem-solving, and "Mishima" presented him with the opportunity to undermine the Western illusion of life as a series of problems, and the existence of definitive solutions that view implies. There are no solutions, emphasized the author of the landmark "Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer." Life presents conundrums to explore, he said, but we should not think of it as something that can ever be fully understood.
Schrader saw Mishima as an outsider, an individualist in a "consensus culture," a post-war military reject who embraced the glory of Imperial Japan, and an artist who relished his role as pop star. Eventually, he came to believe that his image as a public figure eclipsed his works, that his life was his art. His meticulously planned ritual suicide was envisioned as the climax to his greatest fiction -- himself.
Appearing on stage with his costume/production designer Eiko Ishioka, a film novice at the time of "Mishima," Schrader recalled the difficulties of finding an approach to Mishima's life and work, which he broke down into four sections and various interwoven styles: black and white for episodes from Mishima's past, including his childhood; pseudo-cinema verite for the last day of his life; and theatrically stylized, exaggeratedly artificial sets for excerpts from three of Mishima's novels: "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (1956), "Kyoko's House" (1959) and "Runaway Horses" (1968).
Schrader had brought his personal 35 mm print of "Mishima" with him, and although it looked as dazzling as I'd remembered on the enormous Virginia Theatre screen at Ebertfest (projected to perfection, as always, by James Bond), he said the upcoming remastered Criterion DVD actually sounded better (in a Dolby 5.1 remix). He also added one scene and did a sky replacement (in the mostly day-for-night seaside seppuku sequence from "Runaway Horses" in part 3, to make it look more artificial).
There's some concern about Schrader digitally manipulating the suicide scene from Runaway Horses, as self-revisionism is a taboo after Lucas and Spielberg mucked up their own works. Did the scene look dramatically different? You say there was a sky replacement, can you elaborate? Thanks!
I think "Mishima" is one of the most interesting films ever made. I´ve noticed you didn´t say a word about its famous score by Philip Glass. In my CD of the film Shrader says "I wanted a score which would unite the film´s disparate elements and propel it forward. Such a score, by definition, would be a distinct, cohesive composition". Do you think he got what he wanted?
I am a bit worried about this digital manipulation you talked about. The visual of the film was so fantastically artificial, why change it more?
Joao Solimeo
Brazil
I think "Mishima" is one of the most interesting films ever made. I´ve noticed you didn´t say a word about its famous score by Philip Glass. In my CD of the film Shrader says "I wanted a score which would unite the film´s disparate elements and propel it forward. Such a score, by definition, would be a distinct, cohesive composition". Do you think he got what he wanted?
I am a bit worried about this digital manipulation you talked about. The visual of the film was so fantastically artificial, why change it more?
Joao Solimeo
Brazil
I was glad to have the opportunity to see Mishima @ Ebertfest, and I'm thrilled at the upcoming Criterion release.