Tag: film analysis
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
There comes a point in an artist’s career when all elements of his or her experience, knowledge and ability merge to create an unforgettable and synthesized work that defines them. In Paul Schrader’s case, that work is Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Released in 1985, Mishima is a unique biographical tale of Japan’s most…
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Cat People (1982)
After three features that explored lonely men’s attempts to understand their own frustrations and existences, Paul Schrader decided to direct an altogethter differet project. Unlike his previous work, whose screenplays Schrader wrote and which relied heavily on realist themes and scenarios, Cat People plays in the realm of myth and magic. In Cat People, realism…
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American Gigolo (1980)
Paul Schrader’s third directorial feature branches off from his previous work in its depiction of the other side of the seedy urban underbelly George C. Scott navigates in Hardcore. If Jake Van Dorn’s search for his daughter had taken him to the more chic and upscale sections of Los Angeles, perhaps he would have run…
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Hardcore (1979)
After depicting the plight of the blue collar worker in his directorial debut, Paul Schrader turned inward. Using his father and austere Calvinist childhood as his main sources, Schrader explores one man’s quest for redemption and restoration. In many ways, the plot of Schrader’s second film Hardcore parallels his screenwriting debut Taxi Driver‘s: both focus…
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Blue Collar (1978)
While watching Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, one gets the feeling this is a film that attempts to encapsulate and critique many of its current-day conditions. The backdrop is the late 1970s, when America’s economy was teetering due to oil crises, recessions and other uncertainties, the recent Watergate scandal left a permanent scar on many Americans’…