Transcendental Style in Film : Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer

With a new introduction, acclaimed director Paul Schrader revisits and updates his study and contemplation of slow cinema of the past fifty years. This seminal text analyzes the film style of three great directors—Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, Carl Dreyer—and posits a common dramatic language by these artists from divergent cultures. Unlike the style of psychological realism, which dominates film, the transcendental style expresses a spiritual state with austere camerawork, acting devoid of self-consciousness, and editing that avoids editorial comment. This important book is an original contribution to film analysis and a key work by one of our most searching directors and writers.

Transcendental Style in Film has been widely cited and used in film and art classes. This edition updates Schrader’s theoretical framework and provides a stimulating counter-history to the last half century of global art cinema, extending his theory to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky (Russia), Béla Tarr (Hungary), Theo Angelopoulos (Greece), and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey) among others. With evocative prose and nimble associations, Schrader consistently urges readers and viewers alike to keep exploring the world of the art film.

Paul Schrader is an American screenwriter and director whose writing credits include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ and whose directing credits include American Gigolo, Mishima, Light Sleeper, Affliction, and First Reformed. Transcendental Style in Film was first published in 1972 by University of California Press.