Schrader on Schrader

by Kevin Jackson (Editor)

Schrader on Schrader is an essential set of dialogues with one of the most genuinely fascinating and uncompromising writer-directors in American film. Raised as a Calvinist and hence forbidden to partake of 'worldly pleasures' such as movies, Paul Schrader nevertheless defied his upbringing to become first a leading film critic, then a star pupil among the US 'movie brat' generation of the 1970s: writing the coruscating screenplays for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and directing such provocative pictures as Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo. Maturity has never sated his appetite for attacking 'difficult' material, from adapting Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation for Scorsese, to filming the singular lives of Mishima and Patty Hearst. Schrader on Schrader is a tour through this formidable body of work, including some of Schrader's finest critical essays.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, Media Tie In, Biography, Essays

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 1990

About the author

There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Kevin Jackson's childhood ambition was to be a vampire but instead he became the last living polymath. His colossal expertise ranged from Seneca to Sugababes, with a special interest in the occult, Ruskin, take-away food, Dante's Inferno and the moose. He was the author of numerous books on numerous subjects, including Fast: Feasting on the Streets of London (Portobello 2006), and reviewed regularly for the Sunday Times.
From: http://portobellobooks.com/3014/Kevin...

Kevin Jackson was an English writer, broadcaster and filmmaker.

He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After teaching in the English Department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he joined the BBC, first as a producer in radio and then as a director of short documentaries for television. In 1987 he was recruited to the Arts pages of The Independent. He was a freelance writer from the early 1990s and was a regular contributor to BBC radio discussion programmes.

Jackson often collaborated on projects in various media: with, among others, the film-maker Kevin Macdonald, with the cartoonist Hunt Emerson, with the musician and composer Colin Minchin (with whom he wrote lyrics for the rock opera Bite); and with the songwriter Peter Blegvad.

Jackson appears, under his own name, as a semi-fictional character in Iain Sinclair's account of a pedestrian journey around the M25, London Orbital.

Adapted from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Schrader is my favorite LIVING American (mainstream) filmmaker. I think he's totally underrated, and his film works are basically equisite little portraits of individuals struggling to maintain some sort of order in their lives.

His 'Mishima' is a personal favorite of mine. By far the best film on an author EVER! Also it is interesting that if you look at it as a family - Travis (Taxi Driver), Bob Crane, Jesus, and Mishima share the same outside status.

Wonderful book length interview about his films and stuff that turned him on as a filmmaker. Bresson and Ozu fan. What more can one ask for!

[G. Salter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look at the career of a filmmaker who's spent much of his career trying to reconcile seemingly opposing influences. Readers who've seen Schrader's recent film "First Reformed" and are curious about his spiritual beliefs will particularly find the book helpful as it examines how his religious upbringing and theology studies have influenced his films.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mix of interviews and early critical pieces from Schrader; turns out he's quite the critic in addition to his other talents. It's those critical pieces that make the collection worthwhile, but the interviews also have some fun anecdotes and some interesting exegesis on his films.

[Thomas Mackell · Rating 5 out of 5]

legend

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

hail to the king

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schrader On Schrader is a series of interviews, essays, and other miscellaneous writing by the director interviewed and edited by Kevin Jackson. I found it to be fascinating. I am thinking about writing an academic paper on his film Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters. He started out as a film critic that was a disciple of Pauline Kael until he decided that he wanted to try his hand at writing/directing films. I enjoyed his critical essays on Sam Peckinpah and Film Noir. The main interview sections were as follows: The Screenwriter: The Yakuza to The Last Temptation of Christ (this section also includes Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Mosquito Coast), The Director: Blue Collar to The Comfort of Strangers (this section also includes American Gigolo, Cat People, Mishima, and Patty Hearst), The Intermission: Stage Plays and Other Considerations, The Screen Writer, Resumed: Manhattanville a.k.a. City Hall to Bringing Out The Dead, The Director, Resumed: Light Sleeper to Exorcist: The Beginning (this section also includes Touch, Affliction, and Auto Focus among others). This is probably a book for film enthusiasts, but I really enjoyed Schrader’s intelligent analysis of his career in film. He worked on many intriguing projects over the years and is still working on his body of work.

[Drew Raley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific. Here we have Schrader's Notes on Noir and brief conversations about his transition in the industry. One of Hollywood's only public intellectuals, Schrader is a formidable interviewee and a hell of a raconteur.