Review: Transcendental Style in Film by Paul Schrader

Can a movie really capture what it feels like to have a spiritual encounter?

Plenty of movies have certainly tried (Biblical epics and so forth), but have they ever really worked?

One writer who’s done some seminal work on this subject is film critic and filmmaker Paul Schrader. In the 1970s, Schrader wrote Transcendental Style in Film, which examines three filmmakers he argues developed “transcendental” filmmaking styles.

Schrader revised the book in 2018, with a new introductory essay. You can read my review of the revised version here:

https://eclalibraries.org/2020/04/27/transcendental-style-in-film-ozu-bresson-dryer-with-a-new-introduction/