Paul Schrader is an acclaimed screenwriter and director, with his earliest film credits being back in the '70s, and he's continued directing into the 2020s, when he himself is in his 70s. You'd expect someone with expertise as a filmmaker to have great taste in movies, but Schrader's knowledge goes one step beyond, considering that before he became a writer/director, he worked as a film critic.
Like a great many filmmakers, Paul Schrader's personal top 10 films are widely known, given his participation in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll. This is held every 10 years, and asks film critics and directors to submit a top 10, which then leads to an official top 100. Schrader's thoughts on the winner for 2022 made for another story altogether, but the films he selected are all iconic and worth exploring for anyone interested in cinema. These picks from Paul Schrader are listed below, roughly from great to greatest.
10 'The Lady Eve' (1941)
Director: Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges was a very prolific director in the early 1940s, releasing two films in 1940 (including a Christmas one) and two in 1941, one of them being The Lady Eve. It's rightly held up as one of the defining screwball comedies in American cinema, featuring a farcical plot about love, wealth, and revenge. Specifically, it centers on a female con artist who's dumped once by a millionaire, and then tries to get herself into his life using a new identity.
The Lady Eve's a good deal of fun, and both Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda show their capacity for comedic roles here, even if the two of them might be more well-known for their performances in more serious movies. Paul Schrader himself is known for making rather downbeat and emotionally intense movies, too, so it's nice to know he's able to appreciate something that's a good deal lighter and fluffier than the types of films he's most associated with.
9 'Pickpocket' (1959)
Director: Robert Bresson
Crime/drama movies don't get much more subdued or realistic than Pickpocket, which was largely Robert Bresson's style (he made a somewhat comparable prison movie called A Man Escaped, about a man who escapes). Pickpocket follows a small-time thief in unflinching detail, showcasing the hard life he lives and the way he's forced to commit crimes to survive, even though these actions often have disastrous consequences.
It's not a fun movie, but the understated nature of Pickpocket does give it an odd power and undeniable authenticity. As a crime movie, it's not explosive or action-packed, but reserved and focused on a singular character throughout. In this sense, it's possible to see its influence on Schrader's own movies that look at troubled individuals struggling within an uncaring society, including Taxi Driver (which he wrote) and First Reformed (which he wrote and directed).
8 'The Conformist' (1970)
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
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A classic of the 1970s, The Conformist is an uncompromising drama that deals with political themes while also serving as a grim character study. A man named Marcello Clerici may be the protagonist, but he's certainly no hero, as this film shows how he's corrupted by Fascist ideals and then agrees to undertake a dangerous assassination mission, where his target is an old mentor of his with purportedly radical beliefs.
The core premise is simple, but the ideas explored throughout are as fascinating as they are unsettling. Thankfully, the look and feel of The Conformist can make its more troubling aspects easier to swallow, with the beautiful visuals colliding with the intentionally ugly story in a rather striking way. Certainly, those who are after something bold, dark, and unique will get a great deal out of The Conformist.
7 'Persona' (1966)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman was best known for his straightforward dramas, though Persona saw him combining psychological drama with some thriller elements, and what resulted was one of his very best films. The two lead characters are an actress and a nurse, with the film principally following them and having a fairly small supporting cast. Their bond becomes a strange one, and things only get more surprising when their personalities seem to begin merging.
Persona is the kind of film that's hard to wrap one's head around after just one viewing, making a rewatch desirable, if not outright necessary. Viewers who are patient and willing to be open-minded will be rewarded for engaging with the film as intensely as possible, and it's the disquieting elements and more provocative moments here that ensure Persona is still able to surprise and maybe even alarm more than 50 years on from its release.
6 'The Rules of the Game' (1939)
Director: Jean Renoir
1939 might be tied directly to Hollywood, as a year in cinema history, but that doesn't mean America was the only country putting out classics right at the tail end of the 1930s. Those who are unconvinced need not look any further than The Rules of the Game, which is a satirical dramedy that stands as one of the best French films of all time, and one that still feels timely and biting in many regards.
It takes place on a high-class country estate during a hunting weekend, and uses a rather large group of characters to explore the differences between the wealthy there and their much poorer servants. For as long as such drastic inequalities exist within the world, the observations made throughout The Rules of the Game will always have some relevance, and that the film is surprisingly entertaining and unpredictable has also helped it stand the test of time, too.
5 'Tokyo Story' (1953)
Director: Yasujirō Ozu
By no means was Tokyo Story Yasujirō Ozu's only great film, but it's usually the one people will point to as being his absolute best. It's one of the most moving family dramas of its time, or maybe even of all time, and follows an elderly couple that travels to Tokyo to visit their children and grandchildren, only to find that they're not given much attention, seeing as the younger family members all seem too busy.
Tokyo Story is brutally honest with its oftentimes sad story, and is a remarkably human film about one family in post-World War II Japan, using a small story to explore thoughts and feelings of the country on a wider scale. Naturally, this makes it one of the most iconic Japanese films of all time, and if anything, it's perhaps surprising there's only one Japanese film in Schrader's top 10 (he explored Japan and Japanese culture with films like The Yakuza, which he co-wrote, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, which he co-wrote and directed).
Tokyo Story
Not Rated- Release Date
- March 13, 1972
- Director
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast
- Chishû Ryû , Chieko Higashiyama , Sô Yamamura , Setsuko Hara
- Runtime
- 136 minutes
- Main Genre
- Drama
4 'Vertigo' (1958)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Not just one of the best films of its year, but frequently held up as one of the greatest of all time, Vertigo's reputation precedes it. It's particularly notable when talking about the Sight and Sound poll, as it topped the list in 2012. Narratively, it's simple, but thematically, it's complex, as it's an intense character study about one man becoming dangerously obsessed with a mysterious woman he's asked to keep track of, more or less working as a private detective.
Out of the many iconic movies Alfred Hitchcock directed, Vertigo is frequently considered one of its absolute best, and it's not too hard to see why. The film does feel slow-paced, but in an intentional way that also gives it a hypnotic and haunting quality that, once experienced, proves incredibly difficult to forget.
Vertigo
PGMysteryRomanceThriller- Release Date
- May 28, 1958
- Director
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast
- James Stewart , Kim Novak , Barbara Bel Geddes , Tom Helmore , Henry Jones , Raymond Bailey
- Runtime
- 128
3 'The Wild Bunch' (1969)
Director: Sam Peckinpah
The Wild Bunch didn't end the Western genre for good, by any means, but it almost feels like it could've. It takes certain conventions associated with the genre and gleefully sets fire to them before blowing them up in the most explosive fashion possible for good measure. Even though it's more than half a century old, it still has the capacity to shock and awe, standing as one of the most violent Westerns of all time.
It follows a gang of outlaws that want to go out with a bang, given certain members are getting on in years and plan to retire after one last ambitious job. The Wild Bunch is a film that fits in well with the rebellious and intentionally shocking American movies that helped define the late 1960s before going on to influence a great deal of what was made in the 1970s... including the sorts of biting and challenging movies Schrader himself would work on.
The Wild Bunch
R- Release Date
- June 19, 1969
- Director
- Sam Peckinpah
- Cast
- William Holden , Ernest Borgnine , Robert Ryan , Edmond O'Brien
- Runtime
- 135 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
2 'Metropolis' (1927)
Director: Fritz Lang
1927 was a year that saw the introduction of talkies, and so, perhaps unsurprisingly, it also stood as a year that marked a last hurrah of sorts for silent cinema. Some of the best silent movies of all time came out during this year, and chief among them is Metropolis, directed by the visionary Fritz Lang, and it's perhaps his single greatest work (in a filmography filled with great classics that have stood the test of time).
Like the aforementioned The Rules of the Game, Metropolis investigates inequality and societal division, though it does so through the sci-fi genre, rather than being a work of satire. It's broad and its conclusion may be too convenient by modern standards, but much of what it has to say still holds up and feels unfortunately relevant close to 100 years later. Silent movies don't get much better than Metropolis, which has plenty of interesting ideas and dazzling effects-heavy sequences that are easy to admire.
Metropolis
NONE- Release Date
- February 6, 1927
- Director
- Fritz Lang
- Cast
- Alfred Abel , Gustav Fröhlich , Rudolf Klein-Rogge , Fritz Rasp , Theodor Loos , Erwin Biswanger
- Main Genre
- Drama
1 'The Godfather' (1972)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
It's hard to find anyone who dislikes The Godfather, which speaks to its status as an essentially perfect film. You might even have to go into the world of fiction, where Peter Griffin from Family Guy infamously declared it was a movie he "didn't care for," and he only admitted as much because he thought his life was about to end and it was something he needed to confess.
Paul Schrader can be counted among the Best Picture-winning epic's many fans, and as a sprawling crime movie about the ties that bind and a family that crimes, it's undeniably iconic. To single it out as the greatest film among the 10 that Schrader listed as his favorites seems like something of a no-brainer, but when it comes to The Godfather and its lofty reputation, sometimes a little predictability is, at the very least, justified. In other words, an opportunity that's hard to refuse.
The Godfather (1972)
R- Release Date
- March 14, 1972
- Director
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Cast
- Marlon Brando , Al Pacino , James Caan , Richard S. Castellano , Robert Duvall , Sterling Hayden
- Runtime
- 175 minutes
- Main Genre
- Crime
