Cinenaut

Biography

Paul Joseph Schrader (born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became widely known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Schrader has also directed 24 films, including Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Cat People (1982), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), and First Reformed (2017); the latter earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Schrader's work frequently depicts troubled men struggling through an existential crisis that is then punctuated by a violent, cathartic event.

Raised in a strict Calvinist family, Schrader attended Calvin College before electing to pursue film studies at UCLA on the encouragement of film critic Pauline Kael. He then worked as a film scholar and critic, publishing the book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (1972) before making the transition to screenwriting in 1974. The success of Taxi Driver in 1976 brought greater attention to his work, and Schrader began directing his own films beginning with Blue Collar (co-written with his brother, Leonard Schrader). His three most recent films have been described by Schrader as a loose trilogy: First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021), and Master Gardener (2022).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Schrader, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting (35 movies)

7.1

Eames: The Architect and the Painter

2011

6.5

Tales from the Script

2009

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Raging Bull: Before the Fight

2005

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The Book of Harth

2022

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Schrader's Exorcism

2008

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Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That

2005

6.0

The Rules of Film Noir

2009

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Pictures of Europe

1990

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The Road to Bresson

1984

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Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade

2004

6.9

Making 'Taxi Driver'

1999

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The Beauty of Horror: Paul Schrader on The Comfort of Strangers

2020

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God's Lonely Man

2007

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Influence And Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute

2007

7.1

Milius

2013

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Murnau, Borzage and Fox

2008

7.3

Hitchcock/Truffaut

2015

6.7

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

2019

5.1

Dog Eat Dog

2016

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Ken San

2016

8.0

A Decade Under the Influence

2003

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Talking with Ozu

1993

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Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business

2020

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We Blew It

2017

7.0

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

2013

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Hollywood Mavericks

1990

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Untitled: New Blue

1995

7.1

Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light

2006

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Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer

1990

4.9

Sex at 24 Frames Per Second

2003

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Paul Schrader: Man in a Room

2020

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Godard Made in USA

2010

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1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever!

2022

7.1

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

2003

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Inside Mishima

1985

Directing (28 movies)

Title	Year	Job
The Yakuza	1974	Screenplay
Taxi Driver	1976	Screenplay
Obsession	1976	Screenplay
Rolling Thunder	1977	Screenplay
Blue Collar	1978	Screenplay
Hardcore	1979	Writer
Old Boyfriends	1979	Writer
Old Boyfriends	1979	Executive Producer
American Gigolo	1980	Writer
Raging Bull	1980	Screenplay
Cat People	1982	Screenplay
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters	1985	Writer
The Mosquito Coast	1986	Screenplay
Light of Day	1987	Screenplay
The Last Temptation of Christ	1988	Screenplay
Light Sleeper	1992	Screenplay
Untitled: New Blue	1995	Writer
City Hall	1996	Writer
Touch	1997	Screenplay
Affliction	1997	Screenplay
Bringing Out the Dead	1999	Screenplay
Forever Mine	1999	Writer
The Walker	2007	Screenplay
Dying of the Light	2014	Screenplay
First Reformed	2018	Writer
The Card Counter	2021	Screenplay
There Are No Saints	2022	Executive Producer
There Are No Saints	2022	Screenplay
Master Gardener	2023	Writer
Oh, Canada	2024	Screenplay