Happy 74th Birthday, Paul Schrader! Born today in 1946 as Paul Joseph Schrader, this Dutch American film critic, screenwriter and film director was also born in a religiously conservative family.
Schrader was forbidden by his parents to go to the cinema, and did not see a movie until he was seventeen years old. He now attributes his intellectual rather than emotional approach towards features and filmmaking to his having no adolescent movie memories.
In 1968, Schrader attended Calvin College, a rather religiously conservative college, and earned a B.A. degree in philosophy with a minor in theology.
He later earned an M.A. in film studies in at the UCLA Film School upon the recommendation of American film critic Pauline Kael.
With Kael as his mentor, Schrader became a film critic, writing for the Los Angeles Free Press and later for Cinema magazine.
In 1972, Schrader's film criticism book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer was published. It examined the similarities between Roberto Rossellini, Robert Bresson, Yasuhirō Ozu and Carl Theodor Dreyer.
Schrader wrote an early draft of Steven Spielberg's 1977 American sci-fi/drama film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. However, Spielberg disliked the script, calling it "terribly guilt-ridden," and opted for something lighter.
Schrader also wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films. These included 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull', 'The Last Temptation of Christ' and Bringing Out the Dead'.
The endings of Schrader's films 'American Gigilo' and 'Light Sleeper' bear obvious resemblance to that of French film director Robert Bresson's 1959 French black and white crime drama film 'Pickpocket'.
Other filmmakers who made a lasting impression on Schrader are John Ford, Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sam Peckinpah.
Renoir's 1939 French black and white satirical comedy-drama romance film 'La Règle du Jeu' ('The Rules of the Game') Schrader had called the "quintessential movie" which represents "all of the cinema".
Schrader's essay Notes on Film Noir from the same year has become a much-cited source in literature on film.
Among his credits as a filmmaker, Schrader is best known for co-writing directing the 1985 American biographical drama film 'Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'.
The film was also co-written by Schrader's older brother, American screenwriter and director Leonard. He was most notable for his ability to write Japanese language films and for his many collaborations with his brother.
Leonard had also earned an Academy Award nomination. This was for writing the screenplay for Argentine-Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor Héctor Babenco's 1985 Brazilian/American drama film 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'.
'Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters' is set on November 25, 1970, the last day in Mishima's (Ken Ogata) life. He is shown finishing a manuscript.
He then puts on a uniform he designed for himself and meets with four of his most loyal followers from his private army of the Tatenokai, of which he founded. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas were executive producers of the film.
Fact, fiction and dramatization illustrate events in the life of controversial, world-renowned Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, and nationalist Kimitake Hiraoka (known also under the pen name Yukio Mishima).
In the film as in real life, Mishima dies by suicide by seppuku after failing to win public support for his often extreme political beliefs. This was due to being obsessed with what he saw as the spiritual barrenness of modern life. Mishima was 45.
According to his personal life, Schrader had been married twice. This was to American film and art director Jeannine Oppewall (m. 1969; div. 1976). Schrader is currently married to American actress of stage and screen Mary Beth Hurt (m. 1983).
His former spouse has worked on more than thirty films. These included such roles as production designer, set decorator and set designer.
She has four Academy Awards for Best Art Direction. These were for 'L.A. Confidential', 'Pleasantville', 'Seabiscuit' and 'The Good Shepard'.
Many of her film sets represented different time periods within the 20th century, including the 1930s ('Seabiscuit'), the 1950s ('L.A. Confidential' and 'Pleasantville'), and from the 1960s ('The Big Easy', 'The Bridges of Madison County' and 'Catch Me If You Can').
Schrader's latter spouse is a three-time Tony Award-nominated actress. Some notable films in which Hurt has appeared include 'Interiors', 'The World According to Garp', 'The Age of Innocence' (as Regina Beaufort), and 'Six Degrees of Separation'.
She has also collaborated with Schrader in such films as his 1992 American crime/drama film 'Light Sleeper' as a psychic named Teresa) and his 1997 American drama/crime film 'Affliction' (as Lillian Whitehouse Horner, the ex-wife of New Hampshire small-town policeman Wade Whitehouse [Nick Nolte]).
A recurring theme in Schrader's films is the protagonist on a self-destructive path, or undertaking actions which work against himself, deliberately or subconsciously. The finale often bears an element of redemption, preceded by a painful sacrifice or cathartic act of violence.
Schrader has repeatedly referred to 'Taxi Driver', 'American Gigolo', 'Light Sleeper', 'The Canyons' and 'The Walker' as "a man in a room" stories.
The protagonist in each film changes from an angry, then narcissistic, later anxious character, to a person who hides behind a mask of superficiality.
Although many of his films or scripts are based on real-life biographies (Raging Bull, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Patty Hearst, Auto Focus), Schrader confessed having problems with biographical films due to their altering of actual events, which he tried to prevent by imposing structures and stylization.
Schrader has been active from 1974–present.
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