A lean, impressive piece of work. Nicholas Kazan’s script, which is based on Patty Hearst’s own account, Every Secret Thing, comes across as bilge-free.
Amongst film aficionados, the more simple-minded or shy smut fans, and the strong and growing coterie of Paul Schrader enthusiasts, Hardcore was awaited with special enthusiasm; yet all seem to have walked away in varying degrees of disappointment.
Paul Schrader is one of the seminal figures of the contemporary American cinema. His success is attributable to the creative use of his critical faculty and a commercial deployment of his Calvinism. The result is a body of work that is a bracing commentary on classic and modern Hollywood, and whose bleak vision would make film noir look like musical comedy.
TAXI DRIVER’S SCREENWRITER Paul Schrader interviewed by Richard Thompson Richard Thompson is grateful to Jack Shafer for his help with this interview, which took place
Paul Schrader interviewed renowned French director Robert Bresson in 1976 at Bresson’s apartment in Paris overlooking the Seine, while on the way to Cannes where Taxi Driver was to be shown.