Paul Schrader, Transcendent Style in Film

Paul Schrader

I had never heard the term but I'd already seen a few movies that qualified as "Slow Cinema". Some of them, like Ida, a Polish movie, just seemed kind of dull. I liked Kelly Reichhardt's movies, noticed they were a little slow but not boring. Then I saw a Taiwanese movie, Stray Dogs, which I liked but it was definitely very different, almost plotless. Very long takes where not much was happening.

So I bought the new edition of Paul Schrader's book, Transcendental Style in Film with a new introduction discussing Slow Cinema which, he thought, has gone overboard, a lot of the movies now being museum pieces or never being seen outside film festivals.

I'd read somewhere else that the term "art house film" isn't controversial---(almost) everyone knows what it is, agrees it exists and agrees on what which movies qualify, but no one can quite define what makes a film and art house film. I've tried to put my finger on it and failed, so this book is helping.

I just watched Schrader's First Reformed which combines elements discussed in Transcendent Style, his first book, with his first screenplay, Taxi Driver.

As I understand it, Schrader is working on much lower budgets (this was made for $3.5 million, about the cost of an hour TV episode) and he's made a movie a year the last few years.

And I feel stupid bringing this up, but he's making a monkey out of Woody Allen. Allen's known for low budgets and making a movie a year, but his budgets have never been THAT low---they're pretty high considering what he's doing---and he's never made anything this good.

Just to get away from the constant yammering, Allen should try his hand at Slow Cinema. Just as an exercise, make a movie where everyone isn't constantly talking.

Now that he's washed up, Allen should watch This is Not a Film a few times and make a movie of himself in his townhouse.