The Big Picture Magazine
Prior to the release in 1976 of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, based on Paul Schrader’s screenplay, the popular image in movies of taxi drivers were of amiable but somewhat chatty folk — prone to waffle on about the weather, politics or state of world affairs, while passengers did their best impression of accommodating politeness. In […]
Some of The Big Picture’s regular contributors share their choices for the best films of 2021. Part 3. 2021 has been another unforgettably forgettable year. What better way to escape our woes than to delve into the magic and reverie of cinema? Films that center on the juncture of family and pure love have been a […]
So much of Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) looks and feels like Love. All its wonder and joyous trepidation and all its pain and fear. The intensity with which the characters of Tish and Fonny stare at each other, and by design, us, is palpable. The energy pierces the screen and […]
In 1980, Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo launched Giorgio Armani’s career. The designer went on to revolutionize fashion, and menswear and womenswear have never been quite the same. A decade later, when Armani heard that the director was going to film The Comfort of Strangers (1990) in Italy, he reportedly called and asked: “Can I give you […]
Writer-director Paul Schrader is both insider and outsider. His screenplays for Martin Scorsese include the masterpieces Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, while as director he encapsulated the decedent aesthetic of the 1980s with American Gigolo, simultaneously carving out a lucrative career as a studio script doctor. Although considered to be one of the ‘movie brats’ of […]