LOS ANGELES: "Taxi Driver" writer Paul Schrader says current lack of quality films in Hollywood is because audiences no longer take films seriously.
Schrader, who most recently wrote and directed "First Reformed", starring Eathan Hawke, says there are talented filmmakers keen to explore social issues through cinema but they are being let down by the viewers, reported Deadline.
"There are people who talk about the American cinema of the 70s as some halcyon period. It was to a degree but not because there were any more talented filmmakers. There's probably, in fact, more talented filmmakers today than there was in the 70s. What there was in the 70s was better audiences, he said.
When people take movies seriously it's very easy to make a serious movie, he continued.
When they don't take it seriously, it's very, very hard. We now have audiences that don't take movies seriously so it's hard to make a serious movie for them. It's not that us filmmakers are letting you down, it's you audiences are letting us down, he added.
Schrader said there was a time when films in Hollywood engaged with the social and political topics of the day and age because there was a demand for such stories from the viewers.
"A lot of what was happening in the world had people in consternation: women's rights, gay rights, sexual liberation, drug liberation, anti-war. All of these things were rolling on top of each other and people were turning to the arts, specifically movies, for what we should feel about this?" he said.
If audiences are receptive to a quality movie, believe me they will get it. We're all just waiting to make it.