Paul Schrader and the cast of The Basics of Philosophy got a warm reception at the film’s world premiere in Venice Friday night, with the 80-year-old director choking up as the credits rolled and the applause rose.
The Basics of Philosophy stars Jack Huston as John Jorissen, a philosophy professor in a small liberal arts college whose meticulously ordered life conceals a long-buried transgression. When the person he wronged unexpectedly reappears, Jorissen is thrown into an existential reckoning, and wracked with both guilt and desire.
Sofia Boutella plays Becca, Jorissen’s partner and colleague. Daniel Zovatto, Bill Pullman and Dana Delany co-star, alongside Shiloh Fernandez, Karl Glusman and Elizabeth Petruso. Martin Scorsese, who directed several of Schrader’s screenplays, most famously Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ, is executive producing the film, as he last did with Schrader’s The Card Counter (2021).
The film’s sombre tone and subject matter likely put a damper on the Lido crowd’s reaction, but the movie was well received, with the audience rising for a standing ovation, clapping warmly for four minutes. During the ovation, Schrader stood up stoically and grew emotional, with tears swelling in his eyes. He received an embrace from star Huston who offered his own applause in Schrader’s direction.
