Hello, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of The Directors Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America,

where each episode we bring you a fresh and insightful interview featuring one of the film industry's top directors,

conducted by one of their peers.

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This episode takes us behind the scenes of director Paul Schrader's new drama, First Reformed.

The film tells the story of Reverend Ernst Toller, a former military chaplain who is now the parish pastor of a small Dutch reform church in upstate New York. Struggling

with the death of his son, who he encouraged to enlist in the armed forces, he finds

his faith further challenged after a pregnant parishioner asks him to counsel her husband,

a radical environmentalist who doesn't want to bring a child into a world he believes is doomed.

In addition to First Reformed, Mr. Schrader's directorial credits include the feature

film's Blue Collar, Hardcore, American Jigolo, Cat People, The Canyons, and Dog Eat Dog, the documentary feature Venice

70, Future Reloaded, and the movie for television Witch Hunt. After a recent screening of the

film at the DGA Theater in New York, Mr. Schrader spoke with director John Patrick Shanley

about filming first were formed. During their discussion, Mr. Schrader talks about how spirituality in cinema has always been a key theme for him,

knowing when to break your own rules and when not to,

and how he believes that the last scene of a film should continue to play out on the sidewalk outside the theater.

Um, um, I then I'll start to bother you.

The sobriety and somberness of this film,

the uncompromising nature of that four square camera

and that overcast sky and the lack of score

and the opening and the withholding, the Calvinist withholding,

of any sign of pleasure or hedonism or anything,

...