Norma Haverhill: Last News

Naman Ramachandran Leads Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton and Quintessa Swindell were thankful for the opportunity to work with revered writer-director Paul Schrader on his latest film “Master Gardener,” showing out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. In a lively press conference on Saturday attended by the leads and Schrader, the filmmaker referred to the “lonely man in the room” archetype that he’s returned to in film after film beginning with “Taxi Driver.” “Hopefully, I’m done with him,” Schrader said. “I’ve always admired Paul’s work; never dreamed of working with him, because I’m not a lonely man in the room – I’m the lusty woman in the house,” Weaver said, adding that the “Master Gardener” role was one of the best she’s ever had. Weaver also thanked Schrader for writing two great parts for women in the film.

Paul Schrader always knew that “Master Gardener” would be controversial.

Naman Ramachandran Revered writer-director Paul Schrader is enjoying a late career renaissance, with “Master Gardener” being his third successive film to premiere at Venice after “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter.” The film follows Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), the conscientious horticulturist of the historic Gracewood Gardens estate, which is owned by wealthy dowager Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). When she demands that he take on her troubled biracial great-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) as an apprentice, Roth’s spartan existence turns chaotic. Schrader made Roth, a man with a past, a gardener because he felt that the profession is a “rich metaphor” for both good and evil. “On one hand, a white supremacist can say ‘We’re the gardeners, we pull out the weeds.’ On the other hand a humanist can say, ‘We’re gardeners, we help things grow.’ And both are using the gardening metaphor — one is evil and one is good,” Schrader told Variety.