Paul Schrader
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Paul Joseph Schrader (/ˈʃreɪdər/; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Schrader has also worked extensively as a director: his 23 films include Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), and First Reformed (2017), with the last of these earning him his first Academy Award nomination. Schrader's work frequently depicts "man in a room" stories which feature isolated, troubled men confronting an existential crisis. Raised in a strict Calvinist family, Schrader attended Calvin College before pursuing film studies at UCLA on the encouragement of film critic Pauline Kael. He then worked as a film scholar and critic, publishing the book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (1972) before transitioning to screenwriting in 1974. The success of Taxi Driver in 1976 brought greater attention to his work, and Schrader began directing his own films, beginning with Blue Collar (co-written with his brother, Leonard Schrader). Schrader has described three of his recent films as a loose trilogy: First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021), and Master Gardener (2022). Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Schrader, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Credits
Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013)
as Self (segment Paul Schrader)
Dog Eat Dog (2016)
as El Greco
Playboy: Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003)
as Self
Best Served Cold: How a Revenge Film was Buried for Decades (2026)
as Himself
A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
as Self
Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)
as Self
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade (2004)
as Self
Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light (2006)
as Self
Hollywood Mavericks (1990)
as Self
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic (2013)
as Self
Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005)
as Self
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2019)
as Self
Tales from the Script (2009)
as Self
Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business (2020)
as Self
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
as Self
Godard Made in USA (2010)
as Self
Birth of a Nation (1997)
as Self
Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Cast Q&A (2016)
as Self
We Blew It (2017)
as Self
Murnau, Borzage and Fox (2008)
as Self
Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011)
as Self
Raging Bull: Before the Fight (2005)
as Self
Pictures of Europe (1990)
as Self
Ritratti di cinema (2025)
as Self
Paul Schrader: Man in a Room (2020)
as Self
Influence And Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute (2007)
as Self
Making 'Taxi Driver' (1999)
as Self
Milius (2013)
as Self
Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer (1990)
as Self
Männer im Trenchcoat, Frauen im Pelz (2004)
as Self
The Rules of Film Noir (2009)
as Self
The Book of Harth (2022)
as Self
Ken San (2016)
as Self
The Road to Bresson (1984)
as Self
Schrader's Exorcism (2008)
as Self
God's Lonely Man (2007)
as Self
The Beauty of Horror: Paul Schrader on The Comfort of Strangers (2020)
as Self
Masterclass di Paul Schrader al Laceno d'Oro 48 (2025)
as Self - filmmaker, guest
Talking with Ozu (1993)
as Self
Cat People: An Intimate Portrait by Paul Schrader (2002)
as Self
Untitled: New Blue (1995)
as Himself (uncredited)
Inside Mishima (1985)
as Self
Producing 'Taxi Driver' (2007)
as Himself