Paul Schrader

Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or cowrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films Taxi Driver , Raging Bull , The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead . Schrader has also directedfeature films, including his 1982 remake of the horror classic Cat People, the crime drama American Gigolo , the biographical drama Mishima A Life in Four Chapters , the cult film Light Sleeper , the drama Affliction , the biographical film Auto Focus , and the erotic dramatic thriller The Canyons .

Schrader was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Joan and Charles A. Schrader, an executive. Schraders family practiced in the Calvinist Christian Reformed Church, and his early life was based upon the religions strict principles and parental education. He did not see a film until he was seventeen years old, and was able to sneak away from home. In an interview he stated that The AbsentMinded Professor was the first film he saw. In his own words, he was very unimpressed by it, while Wild in the Country, which he saw some time later, had quite some effect on him. Schrader refers his intellectual rather than emotional approach towards movies and moviemaking to his having no adolescent movie memories. Schrader is of Dutch descent.

Source: Wikipedia