Paul Schrader
American film director (born 1946)
Who was Paul Schrader?
Paul Joseph Schrader ( SHRAY-dər; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Raised in a strict Calvinist family, Schrader attended Calvin College before pursuing film studies at UCLA on the encouragement of film critic Pauline Kael. 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's work frequently depicts "man in a room" stories which feature isolated, troubled men confronting an existential crisis. He then worked as a film scholar and critic, publishing the book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (1972) before transitioning to screenwriting in 1974.
Historical significance
He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). Schrader has also worked extensively as a director: his 23 films include Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), and First Reformed (2017), with the last of these earning him his first Academy Award nomination.
