Paul Schrader
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First Reformed: Paul Schrader vs. Slow Cinema
In an interview in March, Paul Schrader questioned the ongoing usefulness of Slow Cinema. “It had a real interesting moment in the last 10 years, but now the novelty has worn off, and people are not as mesmerized as they were when the slowness was really being used as a new concept of film time,” he said. “It’s a dead end. […] There are still bits of transcendental style. It was a precursor to slow cinema, but it’s not really that slow. A terrific film like Silent Light is closer to transcendental style than slow cinema, but they lump it in […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 30, 2017 -
The Yakuza, Interiors and Chilly Scenes of Winter: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Picks
Sydney Pollack’s The Yakuza (1975) is an idiosyncratic but fascinating blend of incongruous tones made all the stranger by the difference in sensibilities among the men behind the camera. The film started as a script by brothers Paul and Leonard Schrader, who sold it for a boatload of cash thanks to the high-concept premise: an ex-soldier from the U.S. travels to Japan and infiltrates the underworld in a mash-up of the American action flick and the Asian martial arts film. Once Pollack came on board to direct the movie became something less commercial but, in its way, more compelling; uncomfortable […]
by Jim Hemphill on Mar 3, 2017 -
Paul Schrader on the Theatrical Experience, Web Series and the Death of the Three Act Drama
Last night at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP, Paul Schrader had a conversation with Marc Schiller, as part of the latter’s Future State of Entertainment Speaker Series. Perhaps more than any other director of his generation, Schrader seems to have embraced the democratic technologies available to today’s filmmakers, between crowdsourcing on The Canyons and his recent intent to make a web series. Indeed, if the protest surrounding his latest film is any indication, he may be done with studios for the foreseeable future. Throughout the two hours, Schrader and Schiller covered a variety of topics, from new technologies to the phasing out of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 31, 2014 -
Michel Gondry’s Low-Budget Taxi Driver Remake
Swede: to remake a film with limited resources, cheap effects and obsolete technology, as per Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. The idiosyncratic Frenchman put his own concept to the test with his low-budget re-imagining of Taxi Driver. Upon watching the short, screenwriter Paul Schrader had this much to say: “I always maintained Taxi Driver should never [have a] sequel or [be] remade. Michel Gondry is making me rethink this position.” With Schrader recently dismissing talk of a Lars Von Trier Taxi Driver remake, now is the time to revisit Gondry’s version.
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 19, 2014 -
L.A. Unplugged: Director Paul Schrader on The Canyons
Stunning black-and-white photos of movie theaters — old-style palaces and tacky multiplexes alike — sit underneath the credits of The Canyons, the 18th feature from veteran director and screenwriter Paul Schrader. Except rather than evoke the majesty of the 20th century’s dominant art form, they depict its collapse. These theaters are guttered, wrecked, their seats torn out, signage empty, neon fixtures torn and dangling from the ceilings. Some of these theaters — vintage single-screen Art Deco houses — are surely no longer viable in the modern era. The demise of the pictured strip-mall multiplexes, however, is most likely the product […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 18, 2013 -
“How Do You Get Anybody to See It?” Paul Schrader on Taxi Driver and 21st Century Filmmaking
Paul Schrader presented a screening of Taxi Driver in Toronto last weekend and spoke to the capacity audience of 450 at the Royal Cinema for an hour afterwards about his career and the changing state of filmmaking. As part of the Seventh Art Live Directors Series and presented by The Royal, he also showed a scene from his forthcoming The Canyons, starring Lindsay Lohan. Many in the audience watched Taxi Driver for the first time on the big screen, since many were not even born when the film shocked audiences in 1976. A major critical and box-office success, it launched […]
by Allan Tong on Apr 24, 2013 -
LIZ HOLM ON THE BIGGER PICTURE OF KICKSTARTER
Over on the Sundance website, Liz Holm — Kickstarter’s Film Program Director, as well as being a film producer in her own right — has a piece up about The Canyons, the collaboration between director Paul Schrader and novelist Bret Easton Ellis. The project is arguably the most high-profile film to turn to Kickstarter for funding and, understandably given the talent involved, it has already surpassed it’s fundraising goal of $100,000. (As I write this, it’s $40,000+ over its target, with 8 days still to go.) What I think is most interesting about Holm’s piece is not so much her […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 1, 2012 -
Kickstarter is for People!
A filmmaker asked me, “Do you think I can raise $400,000 on Kickstarter?” I told her that that sounded like a lot. Start-up technology companies using Kickstarter as, essentially, a customer-financed pre-buy platform, are raising in the seven figures. But $400,000 would be on the high-end of a feature film raise. Blue Like Jazz raised about $350,000, and that was based on a New York Times best-seller. Koo did great with Man-Child, scoring about $125,000, but he spent a couple years seeding his campaign by building an audience at No Film School. But as I was talking, I realized the […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2012 -
MARTIN SCORSESE AND PAUL SCHRADER TALK “TAXI DRIVER” AT 35
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Martin Scorsese‘s seminal film Taxi Driver, Sony Pictures and The Film Foundation, Scorsese’s film preservation non-profit, held a premiere screening of their 4k restoration of the film at the DGA in New York City last night, which also included a conversation with Scorsese and Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader moderated by critic Kent Jones. The restoration, which will be available on Blu-ray on April 5 and screening theatrically at AMC theaters beginning March 19 (NYC’s Film Forum will show a new 35mm print starting the 18th), took most of 2010 for Sony to accomplish. According […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 11, 2011 -
U.S. DIRECTORS CALL FOR JAFAR PANAHI’S RELEASE
A powerful statement from U.S. directors calling for the release of director Jafar Panahi from prison in Iran has been issued. I’ll let the petition speak for itself, but kudos to the organizers for taking action and assembling this illustrious group. New York, NY (April 30, 2010) – Jafar Panahi, an internationally acclaimed Iranian director of such award-winning films as The White Balloon, The Circle, Crimson Gold and Offside, was arrested at his home on March 1st and has been held since in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. A number of filmmaking luminaries have come to Mr. Panahi’s defense and “condemn […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2010
