Paul Schrader Filmography

Born:: July 22, 1946 in Grand Rapids, MI
Occupation:: Actor, Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: Raised in a strict religious household in Michigan, writer/director Paul Schrader studied theology at Calvin College and didn't see a movie until he was in his late teens. His stern background would fuel many of the themes throughout his career: downbeat stories of characters who violently break...Read More

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Adam Resurrected

Crew: Director

Actors: Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Ayelet Zurer, Moritz Bleibtreu

2008
The Walker

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty

Synopsis: With The Walker, Paul Schrader unofficially updates themes and tropes first explored by his controversial erotic thriller American Gigolo (1980). Woody Harrelson stars as Carter Page III, an overtly gay, Virginia senator's son, paid as an asexual escort of middle-aged women in the upper-crust Read More

12/7/07
Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist

Crew: Director

Actors: Stellan Skarsgård, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar, Ralph Brown, Israel Adurama

Synopsis: In 2003, respected filmmaker and screenwriter Paul Schrader was hired to direct a prequel to the 1973 box-office smash The Exorcist. However, when Schrader turned in his film to executives at Morgan Creek Productions, the producers felt the film was not marketable, and they opted to remake the Read More

5/20/05
A Decade Under the Influence

Actors: Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Ellen Burstyn

Synopsis: In the late '60s, American culture experienced a period of change as the youth movement challenged conventional attitudes about politics, sex, drugs, and gender issues, while the advancement of the Vietnam War found many citizens questioning the actions and wisdom of their government for the first Read More

4/25/03
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Actors: Dede Allen, Peter Bart, Andrew Cohen, Tony Bill, Karen Black

Synopsis: Based upon Peter Biskind's book of the same name, this BBC-produced documentary traces the rise of a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who briefly changed the face of movies with a more personal approach that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable onscreen. Influenced by such European Read More

2003
Auto Focus

Crew: Director

Actors: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman

Synopsis: The life and sordid, untimely death of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane are explored by director Paul Schrader in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning Read More

10/18/02
Bringing Out the Dead

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore

Synopsis: This tense urban drama stars Nicolas Cage as Frank Pierce, a paramedic on the brink of physical and emotional collapse. Frank has worked for years in one of New York's most brutal neighborhoods, and the pressure of his job has taken its toll; plagued with self-doubt, he is haunted by the spirits Read More

10/22/99
Forever Mine

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Joseph Fiennes, Ray Liotta, Gretchen Mol, Vincent Laresca

Synopsis: Writer/director Paul Schrader explored his well-documented interest in film noir with this modern-day crime story. A horribly disfigured man named Manuel Esquema (Joseph Fiennes) is called upon to help out Mark Brice (Ray Liotta), a former city councilman in a wealthy New York community. Brice has Read More

1999
Affliction

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nick Nolte, James Coburn, Sissy Spacek, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt

Synopsis: Nick Nolte and James Coburn deliver some of the finest work of their respective careers in this powerful but troubling adaptation of Russell Banks' novel. Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is the sheriff in a small New England town; it's a part-time job with few taxing responsibilities, and Wade fills Read More

12/30/98
Touch

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Bridget Fonda, Christopher Walken, Skeet Ulrich, Tom Arnold, Gina Gershon

Synopsis: This film is the product of an unlikely pairing between novelist Elmore Leonard and maverick screenwriter-director Paul Schrader. Leonard usually writes Detroit-based crime novels; this time, Schrader transports one of Leonard's quirkier, non-crime books to an L.A. scene. Christopher Walken plays Read More

1997
City Hall

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Al Pacino, John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Danny Aiello, Martin Landau

Synopsis: Three A-list screenwriters -- (Nicholas Pileggi, Bo Goldman, and Paul Schrader) -- contributed to the script of this idealistic political drama. John Pappas (Al Pacino) is the popular, ethical Mayor of New York; Kevin Calhoun (John Cusack) is his even more idealistic and principled deputy. When a Read More

1996
Witch Hunt

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Hopper, Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Bogosian, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Julian Sands

Synopsis: While investigating an infidelity case, an unconventional private detective discovers a far-reaching conspiracy in the magical world of 1950s Hollywood -- and in this film, the word "magical" is meant literally. Director Paul Schrader's comic mystery, originally made for cable, is set in an Read More

1994
Light Sleeper

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Beth Hurt

Synopsis: Paul Schrader's brilliant study of another alienated urban denizen skirting the borderline of madness stars Willem Dafoe as John Le Tour, a rich, upscale drug dealer for Manhattan professionals -- "White drugs for white people," as he puts it. John is a recovering addict and for him it's the Read More

8/21/92
The Comfort of Strangers

Crew: Director

Actors: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren, Manfredi Aliquo

Synopsis: In this erotic thriller, a young English couple on vacation in Venice find themselves seduced by a mysterious older couple. Mary (Natasha Richardson) and Colin (Rupert Everett) have come to Italy to chart the future of their troubled relationship. They soon meet Robert (Christopher Walken), the Read More

3/15/91
Havana

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Redford, Lena Olin, Alan Arkin, Tomas Milian, Raul Julia

Synopsis: A cynical gambler reluctantly comes to the aid of a mysterious beauty in this interpolation of Casablanca and the real-life Cuban revolution. Big-stakes American gambler Jack Weil (Robert Redford) is comfortable in the anything-goes Havana of 1958. But with Fidel Castro out in the wilderness Read More

12/12/90
Hollywood Mavericks

Actors: Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich, D.W. Griffith, Erich Von Stroheim

Synopsis: This documentary respectfully interviews a number of important American directors who have in one way or another "bucked the system." It also explores the life and work of earlier American mavericks through the tributes, reflections, and recollections of the first group. Prominent among the living Read More

1990
Preston Sturges: The Rise And Fall of An American Dreamer

Actors: Eddie Bracken, Thomas Quinn Curtiss, Betty Hutton, A.C. Lyles

Synopsis: This documentary, made for PBS' American Masters series, explores the life and career of the renowned screenwriter and director Preston Sturges (1898-1959), whose few but very influential films managed to change the entire film industry. The documentary features clips from his films, and Read More

1990
Patty Hearst

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe, Ving Rhames, Frances Fisher, Jodi Long

Synopsis: A newspaper heiress is kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced to join a group of terrorist bank robbers in this docudrama, based on the saga of Patricia Hearst. In 1974, Hearst (Natasha Richardson), the granddaughter of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, was a student at the University of Read More

9/23/88
The Last Temptation of Christ

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, Verna Bloom, Andre Gregory

Synopsis: Willem Dafoe plays Jesus Christ in this extraordinarily controversial adaptation of Nikos Kazantzaki's novel. The film depicts a sometimes reluctant, self-doubting Jesus, gradually coming to accept His divinity and the inexorability of His ultimate fate. The much-maligned sex scene with Mary Read More

8/12/88
Light of Day

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands, Joan Jett, Michael McKean, Thomas G. Waites

Synopsis: A brother and sister grapple with family and lifestyle issues in this rock-n-roll drama. Real-life rocker Joan Jett stars as Patti Resnick, an unwed mother who sings and plays guitar in a Cleveland bar band with her brother Joe (Michael J. Fox). Estranged from her parents and struggling to make Read More

2/6/87
The Mosquito Coast

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Jadrien Steele, Hilary Gordon

Synopsis: Harrison Ford delivers one of his most-acclaimed performances in Peter Weir's adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel (scripted by Paul Schrader). Ford plays Allie Fox, an inventor embittered by the blighted landscape of the contemporary United States. As he tells his oldest son, Charlie (River Read More

11/26/86
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami, Yasosuke Bando, Junya Fukuda, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Shigeto Tachihara

Synopsis: In Paul Schrader's unusual biopic, Ken Ogata stars as Yukio Mishima, perhaps the most celebrated Japanese novelist of the last five decades. The film begins with Mishima's youth, then moves forward in episodic fashion to his 1970 suicide, symbolically committed at a military site. Originally Read More

1985
De Weg Naar Bresson

Actors: Robert Bresson, Louis Malle, Dominique Sanda, Paul Schrader, Andrei Tarkovsky

Synopsis: The film style of Robert Bresson is the subject of this documentary tribute to the French director and screenwriter, and to his minimalist auteur films about sensitive individuals (or even animals) trying unsuccessfully to survive in a cruel world. Weg Naar Bresson is divided into several segments Read More

1984
Cat People

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee

Synopsis: In this loose adaptation of the 1942 horror classic of the same name, a 2001-style opening montage establishes some sort of sacrificial, mystical union between panthers and an ancient tribe of humans. Flash forward to 1980's New Orleans, where waifish Irina (Natassja Kinski) meets her older Read More

1982
Raging Bull

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto

Synopsis: Martin Scorsese's brutal character study incisively portrays the true rise and fall and redemption of middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, a violent man in and out of the ring who thrives on his ability (and desire) to take a beating. Opening with the spectacle of the over-the-hill La Motta (Robert De Niro Read More

1980
American Gigolo

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Pallandt, Bill Duke

Synopsis: A slick Los Angeles callboy finds love and redemption in Paul Schrader's ultra-stylish drama. High-living prostitute Julian Kay (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) has it all: the Mercedes, the clothes, access to Beverly Hills' swankiest establishments, and a stable of rich, older female Read More

1979
Old Boyfriends

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Talia Shire, Richard Jordan, Keith Carradine, John Belushi, John Houseman

Synopsis: Noted screenwriter Joan Tewksbury made her directorial debut with this bittersweet comedy-drama. Diane Cruise (Talia Shire), a psychologist going through a severe depression, takes a long look at her life after attempting to commit suicide. Diane decides to pay a visit to her former boyfriends in Read More

1979
Hardcore

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Leonard Gaines, Dick Sargent

Synopsis: "Oh my God, that's my daughter." So read the advertising copy of Hardcore. George C. Scott plays Jake Van Dorn, a man of means and conservative values who discovers that his precious daughter is appearing in X-rated films. Desperately making his way through the sub-rosa world of pornography, Van Read More

1979
Blue Collar

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley, Jr., Harry Bellaver

Synopsis: Paul Schrader's directorial debut examines the trials of Detroit autoworkers living at the mercy of a heartless corporation and a corrupt union. Surviving from paycheck to paycheck, Checker Cab assembly linemen Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto) scrape by and Read More

1978
Rolling Thunder

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, Lisa Richards, Dabney Coleman

Synopsis: William Devane plays a rare sympathetic role in Rolling Thunder, though his behavior is just as cold-blooded and sharkish as in any of his villainous assignments. Devane is cast as Maj. Charles Rane, a recently released Vietnam POW who is given a hero's welcome in his Texas hometown. Things sour Read More

1977
Taxi Driver

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster

Synopsis: "All the animals come out at night" -- and one of them is a cabby about to snap. In Martin Scorsese's classic 1970s drama, insomniac ex-Marine Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) works the nightshift, driving his cab throughout decaying mid-'70s New York City, wishing for a "real rain" to wash the Read More

2/8/76
Obsession

Crew: Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Stanley Reyes, Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia "Kuumba" Williams, Wanda Blackman

Synopsis: Love never dies in Brian De Palma's psychological thriller, though money certainly complicates matters. Rich New Orleans real estate developer Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) lost his beloved wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold) and their daughter during a botched kidnap rescue, after he chose to Read More

1976
The Yakuza

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Brian Keith, Herb Edelman, Richard Jordan

Synopsis: Between making They Way We Were and Three Days of The Condor, Sydney Pollack directed this little-seen thriller from a script by Paul Schrader and Robert Towne. The Yakuza stars Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer, a former soldier who returns to Japan to help rescue the daughter of his friend George Read More

1975
The Directors: Paul Schrader