He began writing film criticism for his college newspaper and began to evolve his theory of a "transcendental style" of film-making as exemplified by Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Bresson, and Carl Dreyer. Schrader felt all three of these directors sought, through a very formalized film structure, to express something of the "transcendent," an all-powerful divine presence in man's life.
During his term at Calvin College, Schrader journeyed to New York one summer to take film courses at Columbia University and made the first of several lucky contacts. While at the West End Bar one night--Schrader had, by this time, slipped rather comfortably into the secular life--he struck up a conversation with another student, who happened to be Paul Warshow, son of the critic Robert Warshow. The subject of their discussion was Pauline Kael's book I Lost It At the Movies. Warshow suggested that they drop in to visit Kael; she had just come to New York, was writing for McCall's, and lived on West End Avenue. Schrader wound up talking to her all night and sleeping on the couch. The next morning Kael offered to get Schrader into the University of California Film School. He accepted her offer later after graduating from Calvin.
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