Paul Joseph Schrader (born 22 July 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a screenwriter and film director. His brother is the also writer and director Leonard Schrader, who has collaborated in the indents Mishima and Blue Collar. He is married since year 1983 with actress Mary Beth Hurt, with whom he has two sons, Molly and Sam.
Life and work
Educated in faith strict Calvinist which deeply marked him and whose influence is felt in all his work, saw a film until 18 years of age. He graduated from UCLA Film Studies and became film critic first for The Press Weekly newspaper and later the cinema magazine. Meanwhile, completed his studies at Columbia University and the AFI Conservatory.
Work as a screenwriter
1975 Writes the script of The Yakuza, to subsequently lead Sydney Pollack with Robert Mitchum starred alongside his brother Leonard. Despite being a commercial failure, it would be visible in the eyes of the new generation of Hollywood directors. In 1976 he wrote the screenplay Brian de Palma Obsession. The same year Martin Scorsese would lead his screenplay Taxi Driver, who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The binomial with Scorsese would create films Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). The long-standing friendship and professional relationship with Scorsese would be broken after the latter work.
In 1986, Peter Weir directed his screenplay entitled The Mosquito Coast and ten years later Harold Becker would do the same with City Hall. The rest of their original scripts would be directed by himself.
Work as director
Schrader starts his career as a director through the success of Taxi Driver, and does it with Blue Collar, a drama about three workers who plan to escape their economic difficulties to commit a robbery. After a very hard shoot due to difficult treatment Director with the actors, the film was released in 1978. After Blue Collar Schrader has conducted a total of 17 films.
Religion (The Last Temptation of Christ, Touch, Dominion), difficult relations relatives (Affliction) and romantic relationships marked by sexual frustration (Cat People, The Comfort of Strangers), the world of low-life (Hardcore) and lives outside of the law (Light Sleeper), self-destructive characters (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Auto Focus) and those who seek to change or faking his class social (American Gigolo, The Walker) are some of the themes recurrent in her filmography.
Work as a writer
* Schrader, Paul (1972). Transcendental style film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. JC editions.
Filmography (as director)
* Blue Collar (1978) (also writer)
* Hardcore (1979) (also writer)
* American Gigolo (1980) (also writer)
* Cat People (1982)
* Witch Hunt (1984)
* 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 (1992) (also writer)
* Witch Hunt (1994) (TV)
* Touch (1997) (also writer)
* Affliction (1997) (also writer)
* Forever Mine (1999) (also writer)
* Auto Focus (2002)
* Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist (2005)
* The Walker (2007) (also writer)
* Adam Resurrected (2008)
Filmography (only as screenwriter)
* The Yakuza (1975)…Directed by Sydney Pollack (with Leonard Schrader)
* Taxi Driver (1976)…Directed by Martin Scorsese
* Obsession (1976)…Directed by Brian DePalma
* Rolling Thunder (1977)…Directed by John Flynn
* Old Boyfriends (1979)…Directed by Joan Tewkesbury (with Leonard Schrader)
* Raging Bull (1980)…Directed by Martin Scorsese (with Mardik Martin)
* The Mosquito Coast (1986)… directed by Peter Weir
* The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)…Directed by Martin Scorsese
* City Hall (1996)…Directed by Harold Becker (Bo Goldman, Nicholas Pileggi and Ken Lipper)
* Bringing Out the Dead (1999)…Directed by Martin Scorses
