Transcendental Style in Film
Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer

Paul Schrader, who wrote or co-wrote four of Martin Scorsese's best films--Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing out the Dead--attended my small religious college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Calvin College. He was a few years older than me. There were no film classes t......more

This seemed, for the most part, like an excuse for Schrader to talk about some of his favorite filmmakers. No crime there—they are interesting directors worth talking about. The concept of "transcendental" style is nothing if not ambiguous and Schrader's definition is, of course, totally arbitrary a......more

people b saying shit so definitively...like man idk i think it depends.....claiming that there are a set of formal elements identifiable as a style in the vein of wolfflin and panofsky - insisting that it could be implemented regardless of culture and personality (both of whom i studied and ran into......more

This book was written by Schrader when he was in his early twenties, not long after he apostasized from his first career (calvinist priest) and a number of years before he began writing films for Scorsese or directing films himself. The seminary school background seems to have done him some favors,......more

Paul Schrader, a master himself, reveals the methods and consciousness of legends who transcended film's apparent materialistic limitation to great artistic success. Ozu as the Buddhist spiritualist and Bresson and Dreyer as arch-Christian directors is communicated not just in their subject matter b......more