Event

Paul Schrader/LIGHT OF DAY

A Special Event!
Paul Schrader in Person!
25th Anniversary!
Shot-in-Cleveland Rock 'n' Roll Movie
LIGHT OF DAY
USA, 1987, Paul Schrader
Acclaimed writer-director Paul Schrader comes to the Cinematheque! In his illustrious 35+ year career, Schrader has written such films as "Taxi Driver," "Obsession," and "Raging Bull," and directed movies ranging from "American Gigolo" and "Mishima" to "Patty Hearst" and "Auto Focus." 25 years ago Schrader was in Cleveland shooting a rock 'n' roll movie at the Euclid Tavern and other University Circle/East Side locations. "Light of Day" (the title comes from a Bruce Springsteen song written for the film) stars Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett as the brother and sister lead performers in a working-class Cleveland rock band. The film focuses on the siblings' on- and off-stage lives. He is a factory worker who loses his job; she is an impoverished unwed mother whose reckless lifestyle has alienated her from her deeply-religious mother (Gena Rowlands). Though Schrader readily admits that the film is "flawed," it is also fascinating especially for Clevelanders. The Time Out Film Guide says that "what at first seems just another dreary blue-collar melodrama turns out to be something infinitely superiorCreate(s) a powerful feeling of real lives being lived and lost." Never released on DVD, "Light of Day" features a cameo by young Trent Reznor, who can be seen playing with other members of Exotic Birds, his pre-Nine Inch Nails band (here called the Problems). Schrader will answer audience questions after the screening. 35mm. 107 min.