Paul Schrader’s Adventures in Moviegoing
15 Episodes
A legendary screenwriter, director, critic, and cinephile whose work searches for spiritual salvation in the modern world, Paul Schrader did not in fact see a movie until he was a teenager—a result of his being raised in a strict Calvinist household that forbade filmgoing. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, he sits down with Criterion Channel programmer Aliza Ma to discuss how he came to worship at the altar of cinema—a journey that began with the discovery of the films of Ingmar Bergman and his life-changing association with the critic Pauline Kael. As he explains, each movie he has selected proved a revelation in his understanding of the medium, including masterpieces by Carl Theodor Dreyer (ORDET) and Yasujiro Ozu (AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON) that reflect his interest in what he famously dubbed “transcendental” film style.
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24:09Episode 1Paul Schrader in Conversation
Episode 1
A legendary screenwriter, director, critic, and cinephile whose work searches for spiritual salvation in the modern world, Paul Schrader did not in fact see a movie until he was a teenager—a result of his being raised in a strict Calvinist household that forbade filmgoing. In this edition of Adve...
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03:30Episode 2Paul Schrader on JOURNEY TO ITALY
Episode 2
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1:25:38Episode 3Journey to Italy
Episode 3
Directed by Roberto Rossellini • 1954 • Italy
Starring Ingrid Bergman, George SandersAmong the most influential films of the postwar era, Roberto Rossellini’s JOURNEY TO ITALY (VIAGGIO IN ITALIA) charts the declining marriage of a couple from England (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) on a tri...
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05:01Episode 4Paul Schrader on ORDET
Episode 4
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Ordet
Episode 5
Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer • 1955 • Denmark
Starring Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen, Cay KristiansenA farmer’s family is torn apart by faith, sanctity, and love—one child believes he’s Jesus Christ, a second proclaims himself agnostic, and the third falls in love with a fundamentalist’s...
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05:05Episode 6Paul Schrader on AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Episode 6
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1:53:39Episode 7An Autumn Afternoon
Episode 7
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1962 • Japan
Starring Chishu Ryu, Shima Iwashita, Keiji SadaThe last film by Yasujiro Ozu was also his final masterpiece, a gently heartbreaking story about a man’s dignifed resignation to life’s shifting currents and society’s modernization. Though the widower Shuhei...
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04:49Episode 8Paul Schrader on RED DESERT
Episode 8
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1:57:03Episode 9Red Desert
Episode 9
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni • 1964 • Italy
Starring Monica Vitti, Richard HarrisMichelangelo Antonioni’s 1960s panoramas of contemporary alienation were decade-defining artistic events, and RED DESERT, his first color film, is perhaps his most epochal. This provocative look at the spirit...
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03:50Episode 10Paul Schrader on MASCULIN FÉMININ
Episode 10
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1:44:31Episode 11Masculin féminin
Episode 11
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard • 1966 • France
Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène JobertWith MASCULIN FÉMININ (“Masculine Feminine”), ruthless stylist and iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard introduces the world to “the children of Marx and Coca-Cola,” through a gang of restless youths engag...
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04:42Episode 12Paul Schrader on CLAIRE’S KNEE
Episode 12
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1:46:19Episode 13Claire’s Knee
Episode 13
Directed by Eric Rohmer • 1970 • France
"Why would I tie myself to one woman if I were interested in others?" says Jerôme, even as he plans on marrying a diplomat's daughter by summer's end. Before then, Jerôme spends his July at a lakeside boardinghouse nursing crushes on the sixteen-year-old L...
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03:07Episode 14Paul Schrader on IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
Episode 14
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1:39:06Episode 15In the Mood for Love
Episode 15
Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 2000 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung Man-yukHong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery abo...
