Master gardener in cinema: Joel Edgerton screenwriter in the poetic thriller Taxi Driver

The highly prolific writer and director Paul Schrader is back in theaters with a new film, Master Gardener. Out of competition at the Venice Film Festival and presented in a gala session at the 2022 Marrakesh International Film Festival, the feature film will finally be released in French cinemas on August 5.

The Master Gardener tells the story of Narvelle, played by Joel Edgerton, a gardener devoted to the gardens of the very sophisticated Mrs. Haverhill, played by Sigourney Weaver. Narvell’s delicate balance is disrupted when his employer forces him to apprentice his niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell, seen in Trinkets and Black Adam), and the dark secrets of his past resurface.

The end of Paul Schrader’s trilogy

At nearly 77, Paul Schroeder has nothing to prove in his art. This excellent collaborator of Martin Scorsese, who wrote the screenplays for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Open Tomb, may sign The Master Gardener as one of his last works, the screenwriter and director had health problems.

Lest it be his last film, The Master Gardener is the final part of a trilogy that began in 2017 with Redemption (the first reformed) starring Ethan Hawke and continued with The Card Counter with Oscar Isaac.

Less dark than the two previous films, The Master Gardener again confronts the specter of the lonely white man facing modern America, this time with a more upbeat and enlightened ending. And it is thanks to the female gaze that Paul Schrader’s film-to-film character is freed from the crippling obscurantism.

Thanks to engaging performances from an impeccable cast, The Master Gardener manages to stand out despite its surgical speed from the get-go. But the senses then allow us to immerse ourselves in a poetry that is as active as it is contemplative.

Paul Schrader didn’t originally envision a trilogy, as he told us when he arrived at the Marrakesh International Film Festival:

“I didn’t think about the trilogy until later. Ingmar Bergman made three films called a trilogy, but I don’t think he thought of them as a trilogy when he was making them. Only in retrospect do you say to yourself, “Ah, but these three films can be combined. They go together.” When someone pointed this out to me, I thought it wasn’t. However, I think it is.”

So what shall we call this trilogy? “Man in his room” trilogy Paul Schrader speculates. It must be said that the card counter and the master gardener have something in common on the road to redemption. “He lives alone, writes a diary and wears some kind of mask to hide his secrets”.

Each of the anti-heroes in Paul Schrader’s three films are tormented creatures searching for light at the end of the tunnel—a bereaved pastor haunted by church turmoil, an addicted poker player trying to save a young soul from the clutches of a destructive environment. and the gardener, who is tormented by his supreme past – and who faces a final test before liberation.

“One, he most likely died at the end, however excited. Two, he’s in prison. And that one, I thought we should let him get the reward of redemption.”, explains Paul Schrader. And this new light brought to this trilogy comes from a change in the thinking of the screenwriter and director:

“When I was little, I felt like I didn’t want to leave this world without saying ‘you’re crazy.’ But now I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to leave this world without saying ‘I like you.'”

And it is in the world of flowers, through a favorable place for metaphors, that Paul Schroeder decided to develop the character of Narvel, born from the name of the country singer Narvel Felts, from obscurity to light, but also to tell the differences of ideologies and love stories. between completely different people.

“The two women in Narvell’s life are of different ages. One is old enough to be his grandmother, the other is young enough to be his daughter. But I didn’t want the audience to focus on the age difference, so I changed Narvell’s background. From a former mobster in witness protection to a former supremo, Ultimately, just to add a politically incorrect touch to the plot.”

With this complex character, Paul Schrader also defends his vision of cinema and the thoughts it brings to the audience about our world:

“There have been critics who have simply said that such a character is not a survivor. And I understand that. Maybe in the real world, maybe it’s true that it’s unlikely that someone like that would change like that. On the other hand, in these stories that we tell ourselves , it’s all still speculation. What if it happened? And it gives the audience something to think about. I’m not saying it’s an absolutely true story, but that’s what cinema is for.”

The Master Gardener is a film that greatly inspired Paul Schrader, “The Great Revival”, as he mentions to us that he already felt a little bit with the serial adaptation of American Gigolo. But he says his trilogy will not be extended. What about the final film? Nothing is less certain.

“I got sick while filming. I never fully recovered. If you had asked me two months ago if I would ever be a director again, I probably would have said no. I don’t think I would. I don’t have the same. energy as I used to. But I’m better now, so That maybe I have another card to play.”

Interview by Megan Choquette at the Marrakesh International Film Festival on November 16, 2022.

The movie “Master Gardener” is currently in theaters.