Origin Stories: Paul Schrader's Footnotes to First Reformed May 11-15 at the Quad

or the latest edition of our recurring series "Origin Stories," writer/director Paul Schrader selects and presents the influences and inspirations behind his upcoming First Reformed

Titles include An Autumn Afternoon, Stalker, Diary of a Country Priest, Red Desert, and more

Though he began his career as a theorist and groundbreaking screenwriter, Paul Schrader has emerged—over the past four decades—as one of American cinema's most accomplished and perennially underrated filmmakers. This May marks a kind of culmination of Schrader's work, with the publication of an updated reissue of his essential Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer and the release of his provocative new First Reformed (opening May 18 from A24), one of his crowning achievements as a director. It's a great film steeped in the language of other great films, so for the latest installment of our ongoing Origin Stories program, we've invited Schrader to select a roster of titles that have had an impact on his life and art. We’re proud to welcome him back to the Quad with films beautiful and harsh, austere yet vibrant, and both of their time and eternal.

With Paul Schrader in person at select screenings.

An Autumn Afternoon Yasujirō Ozu, 1962, Japan, 114m, 35mm
The Conformist Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970, It/Fr/West Germany, 114m, DCP
Diary of a Country Priest Robert Bresson, 1951, France, 115m, 35mm
Ordet Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955, Denmark, 126m, DCP
Performance Nicolas Roeg & Donald Cammell, 1969, UK, 105m, 35mm
Pickpocket Robert Bresson, 1959, France, 76m, 35mm
Red Desert Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964, Italy/France, 118m, 35mm
The Rules of the Game Jean Renoir, 1939, France, 110m, 35mm
Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, 2007, Mexico, 145m, 35mm
Stalker Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979, USSR, 163m, DCP
The Tall T Budd Boetticher, 1957, U.S., 78m, 35mm
Voyage to Italy Roberto Rossellini, 1954, Italy/France, 87m, DCP
Winter Light Ingmar Bergman, 1963, Sweden, 81m, DCP