Schrader's 'Basics of Philosophy' Premieres at Venice — SkimNews
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- Paul Schrader's "The Basics of Philosophy" premiered out of competition Friday at the Venice Film Festival, continuing the director-writer's "man in a room" tradition he traces back to Taxi Driver.
- Jack Huston stars as Dr. John Jorrison, a Midwestern philosophy professor whose hidden pedophilic past resurfaces when the now-grown Miguel (Daniel Zovalto), son of his father's gardener, returns seeking closure.
- The film stages a direct encounter between Jorrison and 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (Karl Glusman), bluntly posing the Schrader-ian question "Can we change?" — answered in Spinoza's characteristically pessimistic register.
- Sofia Boutella plays Jorrison's fiancée Rebecca, whose own son is the same age Miguel was during the abuse; supporting cast includes Bill Pullman as Jorrison's father, Dana Delany, Santiago Cabrera, and Richard Gere in a brief college-set role.
- Martin Scorsese returned as executive producer (as he did on The Card Counter) alongside producers Braxton Pope and David Wulf; the film runs 1 hour 34 minutes with sales handled by CAA Media Finance (U.S.) and Noora Films (International).
- Schrader, now 80, extends his Calvinist-inflected catalog of guilt and moral reckoning seen across First Reformed, The Card Counter, Master Gardener, and Oh, Canada, drawing on the doctrine's view of "total depravity, no salvation."
Why it matters: At 80, Schrader remains committed to the adult-themed, morally uncompromising dramas Hollywood has largely abandoned, and Venice continues to serve as his launching pad — as it did for First Reformed. Scorsese signing on as executive producer lends institutional weight to distribution, with CAA and Noora Films now selling a film whose provocative pedophilia subject gives distributors a hard road to U.S. theaters.
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