Once Again, It’s Time for a Schrader Retrospective

The Scene: Launch of a Paul Schrader “mini-film festival” at the Directors Guild Thursday night. The weekend-long event, conceived by American Cinematheque, kicked off with the L. A. premiere of the director-writer’s newest movie, “Light Sleeper,” which explores some intriguing personalities in New York’s drug world.

The Buzz: Hollywood economics. The movie’s distributor, Seven Arts, no longer exists, and the film’s American release date has been postponed to August. “The problems of distribution are a nightmare,” offered screenwriter and actor Buck Henry. “They build more and more multiplexes for fewer and fewer films, and they play ‘Wayne’s World’ in five of the 10 theaters.”

Quoted: “I’m one of these directors who doesn’t get nominations or awards, but gets retrospectives,” said Schrader, who wasn’t sure if this was his fourth or fifth.

Who Was There: From the film, along with Schrader, were actors Dana Delany, Mary Beth Hurt, David Clennon and Paul Jabara. (Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe also star.) Other industry folk included Cinematheque’s Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams, Natasha Richardson, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, Beverly D’Angelo, Kathryn Bigelow, Freddie Fields, Sandy Gallin, Derek Gibson, Alan Parker, Randal Kleiser, Jim McBride, John Milius.

Overheard: “Schrader’s got a philosophical bone to pick, but I’m not sure I know what the bone is,” said someone emerging from the theater.

Dress Code: No discernible fashion trends materialized beyond the usual range of black suits with J. Crew T-shirts.

Downscaling: There was pay-for-it-yourself self-parking ($1.25), no red carpet, not one searchlight, and the private dessert reception was strictly low budget--coffee, umpteen varieties of cookies (including some that bore a haunting resemblance to Pop Tarts) and brandy.