The hero of Paul Schrader's new film is a philosophy professor

Paul Schrader's new film The Basics of Philosophy has its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2026. It screens out of competition.

The story#

At the centre is a philosophy professor. The character played by Jack Huston is living with the guilt of a decision made years earlier when the person harmed by that decision suddenly returns to his life.

The cast also includes Sofia Boutella, Daniel Zovatto, Bill Pullman and Dana Delany.

Schrader's "man in a room"#

The film is said to continue a narrative line Schrader has pursued since the start of his career: the "man in a room" stories that began with the screenplay he wrote for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and ran on through First Reformed, The Card Counter and Master Gardener.

The shape of those films is familiar: a man left alone with his own moral accounting keeps a journal, builds a disciplined life, and watches that order collapse when a debt from the past arrives at the door.

Why on a philosophy page?#

Schrader's cinema has long been built on guilt, atonement and moral responsibility. That the central character is this time a teacher of philosophy makes the film interesting for anyone following how ethical argument is represented on screen.

Any assessment of the film's philosophical content will have to wait until after the screening; for now we have the festival programme and the credits.