🎬 #110 A Man In A Room.
Paul Schrader once referred to his films largely as stories of a ‘man in a room.’ This week I’ll focus on two of his projects that exemplify this kind of film. One that he wrote the screenplay for and the other, that he wrote and directed. Strangely, I’ve always seen Schrader as more of a writer but he’s directed far more films than he’s written for other directors to make.
Happy choosing, happy viewing
Bry
FILM ONE: FIRST REFORMED
2017 Dir Paul Schrader
[1hr 53 mins]
I came to First Reformed after watching Master Gardener and was totally hooked. It’s a quiet, disquiet - seething film. Ethan Hawke’s man in a room is barely contained by it. His passion stitched in by his strict reverend robes and the power plays and politics of the church world in his local town.
Schrader tells the film simply - the hardest thing to do. This is Taxi Driver by way of Carl Dreyer, or the master of minimalism Robert Bresson. In fact, Schrader sites Bresson’s film ‘Diary Of A Country Priest’ as a major inspiration.
That title also reveals one of Schrader’s most consistent storytelling motifs, or mechanisms - the diary. This film is no different - Hawke’s Reverend keeps a diary as an experiment for a year, and periodically we get an insight in his character’s thoughts and feelings by way of his narration - direct from the pages he's written.
This film follows a long line of solitary men in Schrader’s world. Confined there by their own actions, boxed in by the pain of their past. These are character’s who are prisoner to their beliefs, coiled tighter and tighter by their own way of thinking - unable to step out into the world and get a fresh perspective. But then, if they did that, we’d not have any of the darkness and none of the drama.
TL;DR First Reformed is a film that springs out at you, subtle, powerful - it packs a brutal dose of hopelessness.
*Available for a small rental fee on Amazon, Apple, Google and YouTube in the US and the UK.
Fact: The film was shot in 20 days on a budget of 2.3 million dollars. Fast and cheap.
FILM TWO: TAXI DRIVER
1976 Dir Martin Scorsese
[1hr 54 mins]
Schrader wrote one of my favourite films four decades before First Reformed was released. And you can see just how connected their DNA is if you choose to watch both of them in a double bill. In fact, any film that deals with the lone male suffering from a sort of misplaced rage, owes at least some of its origin to this pure, dark menace of a film.
This again is a man who’s thoughts we get a clear window into from the pages of his diary - a place where he repeats his desire to clean up the streets of NYC. A man on the periphery, on the edge - barely holding on. So many iconic, quotable lines are pulled from the script. But it’s the tightly honed character and the rendering of his mind on film that makes it so powerful for me. The camera that tracks away leaving leaving him alone, instead favouring an empty hallway. Even in this moment, the film pushes Travis out. The camera move decides to put him at the far edge, beyond the frame, where no one cares about him. Where he’s totally isolated.
This is a lonely, empty man looking for somewhere to articulate his anguish, his suffering. His repetitive days, repetitive thoughts are reflected in the edit. A turn with a gun, a turn with a gun, a turn with a gun. We’re seeing and hearing his mind. The devastating thing about it is how it all happens relatively easily. Another Schrader boxed in man becomes a vigilante, hell bent on murderous revenge, from just a few domino falls.
TL;DR I don’t need to call this film a masterpiece because so many other people have, but Schrader’s Oscar winning script and Scorsese’s pitch perfect direction make this a film for the ages, as long as there are isolated men in rooms.
*Available for a small rental fee on Apple, Amazon, Google and YouTube in the US
and the UK.
Fact: Travis orders apple pie with melted cheese. Perhaps a nod to when serial killer Ed Gein was arrested, he asked the police for a slice of apple pie with melted cheese in exchange for a full confession.