Hollywood Tales

“[Paul] Schrader probed the edges of Hollywood, working as a reader at Warners for fifteen dollars a synopsis and teaching himself screenwriting by working on an original called Pipeliner, something he hoped to direct. Then [Pauline] Kael called him from New York — a critic’s position was about to open in Seattle and she wanted him to take it, to spread the Kael doctrine. he told her about his screenplay and said he needed to think about it, but she demanded…