Profile of Paul Schrader on Famous Like Me

Paul Schrader (born 22 July 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a screenwriter and film director, renowned for his characters that fall into desperation while their world crumbles around them. His influences include Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Carl Dreyer, whose cross-cultural similarities he examined in Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (ISBN 0306803356) in 1972. Despite his credentials as a director, Schrader has received more recognition for his screenplays directed by others.

Career History

Raised as a strict Calvinist, Schrader did not see a film until he was 18. After studying at Calvin College, he went on to Columbia University, AFI Conservatory where he received an M.F.A. degree in 1969, and UCLA's graduate film programme on the recommendation of Pauline Kael. Under Kael's mentoring he became a film critic, writing for LA Weekly Press and later Cinema magazine.

In 1975 Schrader co-wrote The Yakuza, a film set in the Japanese crime world directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Mitchum. Although it flopped at the box office, it brought him to the attention of the new generation of Hollywood directors. In 1976 he wrote the screenplay of Obsession for Brian De Palma.

Also that year, Martin Scorsese filmed his script of Taxi Driver which was nominated for a 1976 Golden Globe Award and provided the acclaim and funding that enabled Schrader to direct Blue Collar (1978), which had been written by his brother Leonard Schrader. Starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel, it was a story of car workers trying to get out of their rut through robbery and blackmail.

Martin Scorsese has also filmed Schrader's scripts for The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). In 1986, Peter Weir filmed his script of The Mosquito Coast. For Scorsese, Schrader also co-wrote Raging Bull (1980) with Mardik Martin. Schrader was also involved in the early stages of the writing of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Other films Schrader has directed include Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), the remake of Cat People (1982), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), for which he was nominated the Palme d'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival, and an unconventional, visually inventive film about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst (1988). His 1990s work includes Light Sleeper (1993), a sympathetic study of a drug dealer; Touch (1985), from a novel by Elmore Leonard; and Affliction (1997) from a novel by Russell Banks. Auto Focus (2002) was another biopic, this time dealing with the life and mysterious death of Hogan's Heroes actor Bob Crane.

Exorcist: The Original Prequel

In 2003 he made entertainment headlines after being fired from Exorcist: Dominion, a prequel to The Exorcist. The original director chosen had been John Frankenheimer who died in 2002 from a stroke due to complications after spinal surgery.

After the film was completed under Schrader's direction, the production company, Morgan Creek/Warner Brothers did not like the result and the entire film was re-shot, with Renny Harlin directing. It was released as Exorcist: The Beginning in 2004.

Schrader's version eventually premiered at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film on March 18, 2005 as Exorcist: The Original Prequel, where discussions were held for a limited release in the U.K. before its release on DVD. The film saw a limited theatrical release in the U.S. as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist in mid-2005.

Filmography (as director)

• Blue Collar (1978) (also co-writer)
• Hardcore (1979) (also writer)
• American Gigolo (1980) (also writer)
• Cat People (1982)
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) (also co-writer)
• Light of Day (1987) (also writer)
• Patty Hearst (1988)
• The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
• Light Sleeper (1993) (also writer)
• Touch (1997) (also writer)
• Affliction (1997) (also writer)
• Forever Mine (1999) (also writer)
• Auto Focus (2002)
• Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist (2005)

Reference

• Interview with Paul Schrader in Empire Online

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