This hit the net overnight, good news in general:

http://www.moviehole.net/news/4668.html

I'm all for completeness, but I'm not expecting much from Schrader's film. When his version was scrapped there was a lot of talk that made it sound like a classic film had been stolen out from cineastes, and I frankly never bought it. Paul Schrader is an undoubtedly talented person, but his track record imo is spotty as hell. For every Taxi Driver, Mishima, or Affliction there's a Cat People or Forever Mine, the latter one of the worst films of the 90s imo.

Not saying it WILL be bad, but I am reluctant to buy into this line of thought that it is a lost classic without some real reviews coming out(or even just seeing it myself). It'd be hard pressed to be WORSE than the Renny Harlin version, but I think the project was poison the minute Frankenheimer had to give it up.

I'm with you on Schrader's spottiness, and Caleb Carr sent out an infamous e-mail to the effect that Schrader had botched the project long before that version was scrapped. BUT--Scott Foundas, a really good L.A.-based critic, saw Schrader's cut on a video (the director's) for an excellent article in the L.A. Weekly and liked it well enough. Reportedly, Blatty saw it and was happy, too. I think this could be up Schrader's alley and am very curious.

FOREVER MINE is certainly uneven, but far from being one of the worst films of the 90s. For most of its length, it's a fascinating variation on VERTIGO - in fact, the first VERTIGO variation I've seen in which it is the man rather than the woman who is doubled. The main problem is that whenever Schrader doesn't know how to end a film, he simply has his central character pull out a gun and start shooting everyone. Nonetheless, this film, Schrader's first in 2.35, deserved a better fate - it recently sneaked out as a cheap DVD premiere in the UK.

Schrader's following film, AUTO FOCUS, was one of my favorites of last year.

I have also seen Schrader's cut and have to say that it is good. Much, much better than Harlin's version IMO. I did do a long post about it on the previous incarnation of this forum, but I imagine that post went bye-bye when the archive went down.

Am I the only person alive who got something out of Schraeder's CAT PEOPLE?

I adore Paul Schrader's CAT PEOPLE so you are not alone!

and don't forget that terrific Giorgio Moroder soundtrack!

. . . I wrote a little defense of FOREVER MINE back before the crash as my wife and I both enjoyed this film . . . we liked the plot chock full of obsessive romanticism fused with good old fashioned revenge, the fact the cast plays it straight, as well as the use of color throughout (I believe I read Schrader was thinking of a film noir told with the style of a Douglas Sirk) - also nice music by Angelo Badalamenti . . . a film of extreme stylization which does not seem to be to the taste of many - we have tried it on a few friends and, sorry to say, are yet to make a convert - but the R1 DVD from MGM is at least anamorphic and the picture does look nice . . . I also enjoyed CAT PEOPLE which is not a bad film at all, but the problem with it is that it gets me to thinking what a masterpiece Tourneur's film is and I end up wishing I had spent the time watching it once again - hopefully Warner will come through with the sort-of-promised Val Lewton set in 2005 . . .

:: Am I the only person alive who got something out of Schraeder's CAT PEOPLE?

And am *I* the only person who thinks AFFLICTION is a terrible film?

Vincent

I'm siding with Henry's original post here, in that I really won't be expecting too much from the Schrader cut, though I still hold out a little bit of hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised. After all, Hollywood history is rife with incidents where studio suits (alienated by, or unable to grasp an original vision by a talented director or writer) have -- in the interest of playing it safe at the box office -- mutilated what was later proven to be a superior version.

I did not see the theatrical release of 4 and I have absolutely no interest in doing so. Yes, I was taught long ago that you can't judge a book by its cover, but real life experience has taught me, especially in the realm of film, that often you can prejudge, and that the release version of this picture would be nothing more than another fungible and forgettable piece of computer generated product that rolled off the assembly line, in order to fulfill the year's quota. Certainly there's no denying that Schrader's resume contains more that its share of cinematic failures, but his failures are nonetheless still interesting failures that are not without at least some nutritional value.

Actually Vincent I didn't think Affliction was that great either but I didn't want to deal with the inevitable onslaught of 'what about Affliction?!' posts. So I threw it in there, since a lot of people seemed to like it when it came out. Coburn I thought was excellent however.

Regarding Cat People, well, the nudity was nice...Same with Forever Mine. Cat People isn't a terrible film, but it's a rather plain genre outing from Schrader, enlivened by a couple good performances from actors who (at that time anyway) weren't usually seen in a genre context. I wasn't fond of the visual styling of it, I thought The Hunger was a far more accomplished and original attempt at a modernized(for the 80s) A-List horror film.

My main point in bringing up Cat People was that it was a previous genre attempt by Schrader, and imo at least, was rather average and slightly dull. Frankly I'd hope his Exorcist film is better than that, considering the hushed tones with which it seems to be spoken of by some.

Forever Mine however I can't find anything good about beyond the Gretchen Mol nudity. I place it in the steadily growing category of Soft Core Porn With Almost-A List Actresses Starring The Tremendously Overrated and Hackish Joseph Fiennes. So far there's only two films in the genre, this and Killing Me Softly. The attention Fiennes received for his performance in Shakespeare in Love went to his head, imo. He seems to think of himself as a chameleon-like actor, but realistically he's a Hugh Grant type that needs to play charming to be interesting.

Autofocus I'm mixed on. It's entertaining while it's playing, but I always end up wondering what the point was.

No! I hated it, too! I thought it was dramatically laughable and very clumsily written. I was making fun of it out loud (something I rarely do during movies) when I watched it with a few friends. They were not happy.
And why the hell do so many people think Coburn was so good? I thought he was unconvincing and cartoonish. ANY actor could have done that role.