Paul Schrader, un cineasta a menudo asociado con la generación de los 'movie brats', forjó un camino distinto. Su educación en un estricto hogar calvinista inicialmente limitó su exposición al cine, pero esto fomentó una profunda y crítica conexión con el medio tras sus estudios. El trabajo de Schrader como director y guionista se caracteriza por un profundo interés en el cine trascendental, inspirándose en directores como Bresson y Ozu, una pasión que exploró en sus escritos críticos. Sus películas son conocidas por sus audaces exploraciones estilísticas y temáticas, operando a menudo dentro del marco de Hollywood mientras expanden sus límites.
A study of loneliness, crime and retribution that makes a third panel for the triptych which began with "Taxi Driver" and "American Gigolo". John le Tour is an up-market drug-dealer who has turned 40 and is facing a turning point in his life as his boss is about to quit drug-dealing.
A loner, Travis Bickle, takes up driving a taxi in search of an escape from his sleeplessness and his disgust with the corruption he finds around him. His pent-up rage, fuelled by his doomed relationship with a political campaign worker, leads to an inevitable descent into psychosis and violence.
Called “an ecstatic, arc-bright wonder and terror” by The New Yorker, this major work of art now receives a first printing, featuring a brilliant introductory essay by Masha Tupitsyn. This Academy Award-nominated screenplay is one of the greatest and most urgent in Paul Schrader’s long and decorated career. Called a “portrait of a soul in torment, all the more powerful for being so rigorously conceived and meticulously executed” in the New York Times, First Reformed follows the Rev. Ernst Toller as his crisis of faith coincides with a recognition of looming environmental catastrophe. It is an uncompromising work that seamlessly synthesizes a tribute to Bresson with a profound, existential meditation on the everexpanding devastation that humanity is spreading over the natural world. The crowning late period achievement for an undisputed legend of screenwriting, this is both a master class in concision, depth and emotional range, and a continually relevant work of activist import.