Paul Schrader: The Four Most Important Movies

Paul Schrader wrote the screenplay for such movies as Scorsese's Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ, among others. He also was the director for his own Exorcist, and for other films (American Gigolo, Cat People, Mishima, etc).

A book written by Schrader (Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer) had a profound impact on my views about movie architecture. It is a fine cross-cultural analysis, following the three dimensions (everyday, disruption, stasis) in the films of these masters, each one from a very different universe (Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant). It came that I read the book just after I had discovered the world of Ozu. I tried then to think other movies in the same dimensions (Away from Her, In the Mood for Love, 2046, Unglassed Windows Cast a Terrible Reflection, The Way to Shadow Garden). Again, totally different universes: of Sarah Polley, Wong Kar-Wai, Brakhage.

In the most recent issue of Newsweek, Paul Schrader tells us which are his four most important movies and gives us his reasons:

1. The Rules of the Game. It's everything a film should be: witty, innovative, entertaining, full of ideas and social relevance.
2. Tokyo Story. Director Yasujiro Ozu lifts melodrama into transcendence—there's never been anyone like him.
3. Persona. Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece about his life and the women who had the misfortune of loving him.
4. The Godfather. The Big Manicotti for American cinema. Everything good about U.S. storytelling is epitomized here.

(Filmofilia)