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Paul Joseph Schrader (born July 22, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American film director and critic. Born into a conservative Calvinist family, he didn't see his first film until the age of 17. A child of the '60s, rebelled against his upbringing, joining the counterculture and embracing the "new freedoms". For some, this meant SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll; for Schrader it was serious films.

Schrader was mentored as a critic by the famous Creator/PaulineKael, writing serious studies on FilmNoir and underrated film-makers like Joseph H. Lewis and others. He wrote on arthouse filmmakers such as Creator/YasujiroOzu, Creator/CarlTheodorDreyer, and his favorite, Creator/RobertBresson, authoring a still-classic thematic study of all three directors, ''Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer'' (1972). He also enjoyed films like ''Film/{{Performance}}'' by Creator/NicolasRoeg and Donald Cammell.

It wasn't long before he became a screenwriter and an associate of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood. He worked on the screenplay of Creator/SydneyPollack's ''Film/TheYakuza'', Creator/BrianDePalma's ''Film/{{Obsession}}'', and the early draft of Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' which Spielberg rewrote to the extent that Schrader amicably withdrew credit. His most famous work was ''Film/TaxiDriver'' which was based on his own CreatorBreakdown in a period where he came dangerously close to suicide and went weeks without talking to people. The collaboration between Scorsese and Creator/RobertDeNiro has tended to make Schrader OvershadowedByAwesome, but Scorsese insists that of all their collaborations, ''Taxi Driver'' is the one that most has Schrader all over it.

Schrader would go on to make major contributions to such Scorsese films as ''Film/RagingBull'', ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' and ''Film/BringingOutTheDead'', and the two maintain something of a VitriolicBestBuds connection,
with Schrader considering Scorsese a master and a close friend, but sometimes also noting that he doesn't consider ''Raging Bull'' a decent film and likewise openly questioning the way Scorsese casts some of his films, (for instance he pointed out how Creator/NicolasCage is a little too old for the character in ''Bringing out the Dead'' when the problem of a paramedic worried about his vocation is a dilemma more suited for a younger rookie character than an ExperiencedProtagonist)[[note]]During TheEighties, when Scorsese was prepping ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'', Schrader remarking on Scorsese's difficulty noted that he had his own plans to making a Christ film, and that if Scorsese didn't do it, he would. Scorsese in turn furiously called back, as per Schrader, reminding him that even if he died, he would come back ''[[TheDeterminator just to make his film]]'' before Schrader did, and the two ended up collaborating on the screenplay[[/note]].

Schrader's collaborations on such classic films are far more well known than his own films as a director despite being active for forty years, making films in different styles and genres. In his own way, his films have been highly influential. His debut ''Blue Collar'' influenced Creator/WesAnderson and Creator/SpikeLee, and ''Mishima'', his highly original biopic on the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, was the first mainstream American movie to have the dialogue entirely in Japanese. His remake of ''Film/CatPeople'' involved serious [[MsFanservice Fanservice]] on the part of Creator/NastassjaKinski, but it's also oddly compelling. Among his other best films are ''American Gigolo'', starring Creator/RichardGere; ''Film/PattyHearst'', starring Natasha Richardson; ''Light Sleeper'', starring Creator/WillemDafoe and Dana Delany, and ''Affliction'', adapted from a novel by Russell Banks, for which Creator/JamesCoburn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. His later films include ''Auto Focus'' and ''Film/FirstReformed'', with the latter generally being considered a CareerResurrection for Schrader, including earning him his first UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination.

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!!Selected Filmography
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Screenwriter]]
* ''Film/TheYakuza'' (directed by Creator/SydneyPollack)
* ''Film/{{Obsession|1976}}'' (directed by Creator/BrianDePalma)
* ''Film/TaxiDriver'' (directed by Creator/MartinScorsese)
* ''Film/RollingThunder'' (directed by John Flynn)
* ''Film/RagingBull'' (directed by Creator/MartinScorsese)
* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' (directed by Creator/PeterWeir)
* ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' (directed by Creator/MartinScorsese)
* ''Film/CityHall'' (directed by Harold Becker)
* ''Film/BringingOutTheDead'' (directed by Creator/MartinScorsese)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Director]]
* ''Film/BlueCollar''
* ''Film/{{Hardcore}}''
* ''Film/AmericanGigolo''
* ''Film/CatPeople''
* ''Film/MishimaALifeInFourChapters''
* ''Light of Day''
* ''Film/PattyHearst''
* ''The Comfort of Strangers''
* ''Film/LightSleeper''
* ''Touch''
* ''Film/{{Affliction}}''
* ''Forever Mine''
* ''Film/AutoFocus''
* ''[[Film/ExorcistTheBeginning Dominion: The Prequel of the Exorcist]]''
* ''The Walker''
* ''Adam Resurrected''
* ''The Canyons''
* ''Dying of the Light''
* ''Film/DogEatDog''
* ''Film/FirstReformed''
* ''Film/TheCardCounter''
* ''Master Gardener''
[[/folder]]
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