Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters (1985) / Paul Schrader
"Here was the moment I had always been seeking..." The generic definition of a biopic is meant to inculcate all the major and minor events of the personality specified, with the maker adding its own vision to it, therefore providing many other spectra to a bland lifestyle of events. Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters might be the best of this genre I've seen till date. Even if one excludes the art of disposition in this film, what stands this film out of every other genre trope, is director Paul Schrader's sublime conception of presenting a life of a rather unknown protagonist, Yukio Mishima, in the form of his literary works, moulding his life events on the characters of those stories, thus delivering a mellowed cacophony of a forgotten hero. Then comes director's virtuosity in choosing the characters and surroundings with utmost accuracy and cleverly designed misé-en-scéne, the beautifully fabricated fictions of the poet in vibrantly contrasting sets, thus establ...