The direct line from ‘Taxi Driver’ to ‘The Card Counter’

By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer

VENICE, Italy (AP) — In Paul Schrader’s new film “The Card Counter,” which premiered last week at the Venice International Film Festival and opens in North America on Sept. 10, the writer-director goes back to a formula he’s been perfecting for 45 years: The man in the room. He did it in “Taxi Driver” and “American Gigolo” and “Light Sleeper,” and now he’s enlisted Oscar Isaac to play the most recent iteration. In the film, Isaac is a poker player who can’t forgive himself for his participation in Abu Ghraib. Schrader hopes this isn’t his last film, but the 75-year-old is OK if it is. He just doesn’t want to go out on a flat note.