As the first fulllength study on <strong>Paul Schrader</strong>s films this book examines thedifferent styles of his work and the multiple influences on which i... » 

As the first fulllength study on Paul Schraders films this book examines thedifferent styles of his work and the multiple influences on which it draws. Adefining feature of Schraders career is his capacity to engage in a range ofcollaborations and production contexts while returning to a consistent set ofthemes character types and dramatic scenarios. Going beyond the affirmationof a directorial vision Schrader creates a cinema driven by issues ofobsession memory and the difficult nature of experience. Representative of anew generation of American writerdirectors of the 1970s Schraders filmshighlight the tension between old and new ways of telling a story and betweenthe maintenance of commercial formulas and openness to individual expression.George Kouvaros draws on a personal interview conducted with Schrader and thedirectors prior commentary to trace common motivations and impulses behindsuch wellknown films as Light Sleeper American Gigolo Affliction AutoFocus Taxi Driver and Patty Hearst. Kouvaros readsSchraders films not only in terms of a number of important themes such as maleobsession and estrangement but also in regard to harder to define issues thatinclude melancholia trauma and the complex linkages of violence and guiltthat bind individuals to places and each other. «