Paul Schrader names the best movie of his career: “I still can’t believe I ever made that film”
For any self-respecting film director, choosing your all-time favourite project is akin to choosing a favourite child. Still, every parent has their favourite, whether they admit to it or not. Take Paul Schrader, the Michigan-born writer and director who has played a part in some of the most iconic stories ever put to film, from writing Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to directing cult horror films like Cat People. His talents seemingly know no bounds. Still, the filmmaker has his firm favourites.
Schrader has been a sought-after name in the film industry going all the way back to the 1970s when he and his brother Leonard first wrote The Yakuza, which was eventually sold and directed by Sydney Pollack. From there, Schrader dedicated himself tirelessly to writing screenplays and drumming up film ideas. Eventually, this led the Michigan writer to craft the script for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1976, a film which came to define American filmmaking during the 1970s, bringing Schrader global attention.
You would be forgiven for assuming that Taxi Driver is one of Schrader’s ultimate career highlights. After all, the Palme d’Or winning movie went on to become hugely influential on a wealth of future filmmakers and acted as a springboard for the writer to work on other projects, as well as moving into the director’s chair himself. Nevertheless, when musing upon his favourite personal works, the 1976 film was nowhere to be found.
During a press conference in 2022, the director was asked which of his films best represents himself as a filmmaker. In response, Schrader shared, “Directors like and dislike their children for different reasons.” He went on to highlight one film in particular, saying, “Probably my favourite is Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, just because it’s the damnedest thing. I still can’t believe I ever made that film.”
Released in 1985, Mishima was written by Schrader alongside his brother Leonard, based upon the life and work of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. An endlessly inventive film, the story is told through a colliding of biographical scenes and segments from Mishima’s various books. The resulting film was unlike any other biographical film that had been seen before, with its experimental structure reflecting the diverse and controversial life of the film’s subject.
Inevitably, the film proved too avant-garde for mainstream audiences and was considered a box office flop upon its initial release. Nevertheless, its inventive genius has shone through as the years have gone by, with more and more people coming to realise it as a triumph of filmmaking. Moreover, the freedom that Schrader was afforded when making the film likely contributes to his feelings of disbelief that it was ever made, as well as adding to the enjoyment of the production.
Elsewhere, Schrader was quick to select a few other highlights from his filmography, revealing, “The most personal for me is First Reformed or Affliction. The best stylistically is Comfort of Strangers.” He added, “Cat People is kind of special. Others, for other reasons. I’ve been very lucky. But I’ve made some zeros, too, like we all do.” It almost goes without saying that Schrader’s wins have certainly eclipsed those few “zeros” that have befallen him over the course of his career.
Still, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters stands out head and shoulders above the rest of Schrader’s filmography, according to the director himself. The fact that the biographical film still sticks out in the director’s mind, nearly four decades on from its initial release, is representative of just how revolutionary the film was originally. Despite its commercial failure, the film went on to inspire countless future filmmakers to think about structure and composition a little differently.
