ST MARTY: PATRON SAINT OF ATS CIRCLEJERKERS
rock...@yahoo.com
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese at Tribeca Film Festival in 2007.
Birth name Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese
Born November 17, 1942 (age 64)
Flushing, New York, USA
Years active 1959 - present
Spouse(s) Laraine Brennan (m. 1965)
Julia Cameron (m. 1975)
Isabella Rossellini (1979-1983)
Barbara De Fina (1985-1991)
Helen Morris (1999-present)
Academy Awards
Best Director
2006 The Departed
Golden Globe Awards
Best Director - Motion Picture
2003 Gangs of New York
2007 The Departed
BAFTA Awards
Best Direction
1990 GoodFellas
Best Film
1990 GoodFellas
Best Adapted Screenplay
1990 GoodFellas
César Awards
Life Achievement Award (2000)
Grammy Awards
Best Long Form Music Video
2006 No Direction Home
Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: [skɔɹˈsɛsi]; Ita:
[lu'tʃaːno skoɾ'seːze]) (born November 17, 1942) is an Academy Award,
Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America award winning
American film director, writer and producer and founder World Cinema
Foundation.
Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American
identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,[1]
machismo, and the violence endemic in American society. Scorsese is
widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential
American filmmakers of his era.[2] He earned an MFA in film directing
from the NYU Film School. He won the Academy Award for Best Director
for his film The Departed, which also won the Academy Award for Best
Picture at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007.
Contents
[hide]
1 Childhood
2 Early career
3 1970s
3.1 Mean Streets
3.2 Taxi Driver
3.3 New York, New York and The Last Waltz
4 1980s
4.1 Raging Bull
4.2 The King of Comedy
4.3 After Hours
4.4 The Color of Money
4.5 The Last Temptation of Christ
5 1990s
5.1 Goodfellas
5.2 Cape Fear
5.3 The Age of Innocence
5.4 Casino
5.5 A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
5.6 Kundun
5.7 Bringing Out the Dead
6 2000s
6.1 Gangs of New York
6.2 The Aviator
6.3 No Direction Home
6.4 The Departed
6.5 Future projects
7 Director trademarks
8 References in other media
9 Personal life
10 Filmography (as director)
11 Selected filmography (as actor)
12 References
13 See also
14 External links
[edit]Childhood
Martin Scorsese was born in New York City. His father, Luciano Charles
Scorsese (1900–1993), and mother, Catherine Scorsese (1912–1997), both
worked in New York's Garment District. It was at this stage in his
life that he developed his passion for cinema. Scorsese developed an
admiration for neo-realist cinema. He recounted its influence in a
documentary on Italian neorealism, and commented on how Bicycle
Thieves inspired director Satyajit Ray, and how this influenced his
view or portrayal of his Sicilian heritage.[3] His initial desire to
become a priest was forsaken for cinema - the seminary traded for NYU
Film School, where he received his MFA in film directing in 1966.
[edit]Early career
A young Scorsese.
Although the Vietnam War had started at the time, Scorsese was able to
avoid military service. He attended New York University's film school
(B.A., English, 1963; M.F.A., film, 1966) making the short films
What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and
It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). His most famous short of the period
is the darkly comic The Big Shave (1967), which featured an unnamed
man who shaves himself until profusely bleeding, ultimately slitting
his own throat with his razor. The film is an indictment of America's
involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title Viet '67.
[4]
Also in 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black
and white Who's That Knocking at My Door with fellow student, actor
Harvey Keitel, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker both of whom were to
become long term collaborators. This film was a precursor to his later
Mean Streets. Even in embryonic form, the "Scorsese style" was already
evident: a feel for New York Italian American street-life, rapid
editing, an eclectic rock soundtrack and a troubled male protagonist.
[edit]1970s
>From there he became a friend and acquaintance of the so-called "movie
brats" of the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George
Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. It was De Palma who introduced actor
Robert De Niro to Scorsese, and the two figures became close friends,
working together on many projects. During this period the director
worked as one of the editors on the movie Woodstock and met actor-
director John Cassavetes, who would also go on to become a close
friend and mentor.[5]
[edit]Mean Streets
Main article: Mean Streets
Mean Streets (1973), Scorsese's first film with Robert De Niro
In 1972 Scorsese made the Depression-era gangster film Boxcar Bertha
for B-movie producer Roger Corman, who had also helped directors such
as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and John Sayles launch their
careers. While it is widely considered a minor work, Boxcar Bertha
nonetheless taught Scorsese how to make films cheaply and quickly,
preparing him for his first film with De Niro, Mean Streets.
Championed by influential movie critic Pauline Kael, Mean Streets was
a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro and Keitel. By now the signature
Scorsese style was in place: macho posturing, bloody violence,
Catholic guilt and redemption, gritty New York locale, rapid-fire
editing, and a rock soundtrack. Although the film was innovative, its
wired atmosphere, edgy documentary style and gritty street-level
direction owed a debt to directors Cassavetes and early Jean-Luc
Godard.[6] (Indeed the film was completed with much encouragement from
Cassavetes, who felt Boxcar Bertha was undeserving of the young
director’s prodigious talent.)[5]
In 1974 actress Ellen Burstyn chose Scorsese to direct her in Alice
Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which she won an Academy Award for Best
Actress. Although well regarded, the film remains an anomaly in the
director’s early career, as it focuses on a central female character.
Returning to Little Italy to explore his ethnic roots, Scorsese next
came up with Italianamerican, a documentary featuring his parents,
Charles and Catherine Scorsese.
[edit]Taxi Driver
Main article: Taxi Driver
Black and white publicity still from Taxi Driver (1976); Martin
Scorsese's cameo with Robert De Niro.
Two years later, in 1976, Scorsese sent shockwaves through the cinema
world when he directed the iconic Taxi Driver, an unrelentingly grim
and violent portrayal of one man's slow descent into insanity in a
hellishly conceived Manhattan.
Scorsese's direction by now was highly accomplished, using jump cuts,
expressionist lighting,[7] point of view shots and slow motion to
reflect the protagonist's heightened psychological awareness. However
Taxi Driver's immense power was due in part to Robert De Niro's
intense lead performance. The film co-starred Jodie Foster in a highly
controversial role as an underage prostitute, and Harvey Keitel as her
pimp, "Sport" Matthew.
Taxi Driver also marked the start of a series of collaborations with
writer Paul Schrader. The film bears strong thematic links to (and
makes several allusions to) the work of French director Robert
Bresson, most explicitly Pickpocket (in essence the "diary" of a loner/
obsessive who finds redemption). Writer/director Schrader often
returns to Bresson's work in films such as American Gigolo, Light
Sleeper and Scorsese’s later Bringing Out the Dead.[8]
Already controversial upon its release, Taxi Driver hit the headlines
again five years later, when John Hinckley, Jr. made an assassination
attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his
act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver character (in the
film, De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination
attempt on a senator).[9]
Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes film festival,[10]
also receiving four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture,
although all were unsuccessful.
Scorsese was subsequently offered the role of Charles Manson in the
movie Helter Skelter and a part in Sam Fuller's war movie The Big Red
One, but he turned both down. However he did accept the role of a
gangster in exploitation movie Cannonball directed by Paul Bartel. In
this period there were also several directorial projects that never
got off the ground including Haunted Summer, about Mary Shelley and a
film with Marlon Brando about the Indian massacre at Wounded Knee.
[edit]New York, New York and The Last Waltz
Main articles: New York, New York (film) and The Last Waltz
The critical success of Taxi Driver encouraged Scorsese to move ahead
with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical New
York, New York. This tribute to Scorsese's home town and the classic
Hollywood musical was a box-office and critical failure.
New York, New York was the director's third collaboration with Robert
De Niro, co-starring with Liza Minnelli (a tribute and allusion to her
father, legendary musical director Vincente Minnelli). Although
possessing Scorsese's usual visual panache and stylistic bravura, many
critics felt its enclosed studio-bound atmosphere left it leaden in
comparison to his earlier work. Often overlooked, it remains one of
the director’s early key studies in male paranoia and insecurity (and
hence is in direct thematic lineage with Mean Streets, Taxi Driver,
the later Raging Bull, and the director's most recent film, The
Departed).
The disappointing reception New York, New York received drove Scorsese
into depression. By this stage the director had also developed a
serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to
make the highly regarded The Last Waltz, documenting the final concert
by The Band. It was held at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco,
and featured one of the most extensive lineups of prominent guest
performers at a single concert. However, Scorsese's commitments to
other projects delayed the release of the film until 1978. Another
Scorsese-directed documentary entitled American Boy also appeared in
1978 focusing on Steve Prince, the cocky gun salesman who appeared in
Taxi Driver. A period of wild partying followed, damaging the
director’s already fragile health.
[edit]1980s
[edit]Raging Bull
Main article: Raging Bull
Scorsese on the set of Raging Bull (1980).
By many accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert De Niro practically
saved his life when he persuaded him to kick his cocaine addiction to
make what many consider his greatest film, Raging Bull (1980).
Convinced that he would never make another movie, he poured his
energies into making this violent biopic of middleweight boxing
champion Jake La Motta, calling it a Kamikaze method of film-making.
[11] The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the
greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's Sight & Sound magazine.[12]
[13] It received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best
Actor for Robert De Niro, and Scorsese's first for Best Director. De
Niro won, as did Thelma Schoonmaker for editing, but best director
went to Robert Redford for Ordinary People.
Raging Bull, filmed in high contrast black and white, is where the
director's style reached its zenith: Taxi Driver and New York, New
York had used elements of expressionism to replicate psychological
point of view, but here the style was taken to new extremes, employing
extensive slow-motion, complex tracking shots, and extravagant
distortion of perspective (for example, the size of boxing rings would
change from fight to fight).[14] Thematically too, the concerns
carried on from Mean Streets and Taxi Driver: insecure males,
violence, guilt, and redemption.
Although the screenplay for Raging Bull was credited to Paul Schrader
and Mardik Martin (who earlier co-wrote Mean Streets), the finished
script differed extensively from Schrader’s original draft. It was re-
written several times by various writers including Jay Cocks (who went
on to co-script later Scorsese films The Age of Innocence and Gangs of
New York). The final draft was largely written by Scorsese and Robert
De Niro.[15]
[edit]The King of Comedy
Scorsese’s next project was his fifth collaboration with Robert De
Niro, The King of Comedy (1983). An absurdist satire on the world of
media and celebrity, it was an obvious departure from the more
emotionally committed films he had become associated with. Visually
too it was far less kinetic than the style the director had developed
up until this point, often using a static camera and long takes.[16]
The expressionism of his recent work here gave way to moments of
almost total surrealism. However it was still an obvious Scorsese
work, and apart from the New York locale, it bore many similarities to
Taxi Driver, not least of which was its focus on an obsessed troubled
loner who ironically achieves iconic status through a criminal act
(murder and kidnapping, respectively).[17]
The King of Comedy failed at the box office but has become
increasingly well regarded by critics in the years since its release.
It is arguable that its themes of vacuous show business and celebrity
obsession are more pertinent today than when the film was originally
released.
Next Scorsese made a brief cameo appearance in the movie Pavlova: A
Woman for All Time, originally intended to be directed by one his
heroes, Michael Powell. This led to a more significant role in
Bertrand Tavernier's jazz movie Round Midnight.
In 1983 Scorsese began work on a long-cherished personal project, The
Last Temptation of Christ, based on the 1951 book written by Nikos
Kazantzakis (who was introduced to the director by actress Barbara
Hershey when they were both attending New York University in the late
1960s). The movie was slated to shoot under the Paramount Studios
banner, but shortly before principal photography was to commence,
Paramount pulled the plug on the project, citing pressure from
religious groups. In this aborted 1983 version, Aidan Quinn was cast
as Jesus, and Sting was cast as Pontius Pilate. (In the 1988 version,
these roles were played by Willem Dafoe and David Bowie.)
[edit]After Hours
Main article: After Hours (film)
Scorsese on the set of After Hours (1985).
After the collapse of this project Scorsese again saw his career at a
critical point, as he described in the recent documentary Filming for
Your Life: Making 'After Hours' (2004). He saw that in the
increasingly commercial world of 1980s Hollywood the highly stylized
and personal 1970s films he and others had built their careers on
would not continue to enjoy the same status, and decided on an almost
totally new approach to his work. With After Hours (1985) he made an
aesthetic shift back to a pared-down, almost "underground" film-making
style — his way of staying viable. Filmed on an extremely low budget,
on location, and at night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, the
film is a black comedy about one increasingly misfortunate night for a
mild New York word processor (Griffin Dunne) and featured cameos by
such disparate actors as Teri Garr and Cheech and Chong. A bit of a
stylistic anomaly for Scorsese, After Hours fits in well with popular
low-budget "cult" films of the 1980s, e.g. Jonathan Demme's Something
Wild and Alex Cox's Repo Man.
[edit]The Color of Money
Main article: The Color of Money
Along with the iconic 1987 Michael Jackson music video Bad, in 1986
Scorsese made The Color of Money, a sequel to the much admired Paul
Newman film The Hustler (1960). (The Hustler was directed by Robert
Rossen, whose 1940s boxing film Body and Soul was a major influence on
Raging Bull.) Although typically visually assured, The Color of Money
was the director's first foray into mainstream commercial film-making.
It won actor Paul Newman a belated Oscar and gave Scorsese the clout
to finally secure backing for a project that had been a long time goal
for him: The Last Temptation of Christ. He also made a brief venture
into television, directing an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing
Stories.
[edit]The Last Temptation of Christ
Main article: The Last Temptation of Christ (film)
After his mid-80s flirtation with commercial Hollywood, Scorsese made
a major return to personal film-making with the Paul Schrader-scripted
The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's
controversial 1951 book, it retold the life of Christ in human rather
than divine terms. Even prior to its release the film caused a massive
furore, worldwide protests against its supposed blasphemy effectively
turning a low budget independent movie into a media sensation.[18]
Most controversy centered on the final passages of the film which
depicted Christ marrying and raising a family with Mary Magdalene in a
Satan-induced hallucination while on the cross.
Looking past the controversy, The Last Temptation of Christ gained
critical acclaim and remains an important work in Scorsese's canon: an
explicit attempt to wrestle with the spirituality which had under-
pinned his films up until that point. The director went on to receive
his second nomination for a Best Director Academy Award (again
unsuccessfully, this time losing to Barry Levinson for Rain Man).
Along with directors Woody Allen and Francis Coppola, in 1989 Scorsese
provided one of three segments in the portmanteau film New York
Stories, called "Life Lessons".
[edit]1990s
[edit]Goodfellas
Main article: Goodfellas
Scorsese on the set of Goodfellas (1990) with (from L-R) Robert De
Niro, Ray Liotta, and Paul Sorvino.
After a decade of mostly mixed results, gangster epic Goodfellas
(1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most confident and
fully realized film since Raging Bull. A return to Little Italy, De
Niro, and Joe Pesci, Goodfellas offered a virtuoso display of the
director's bravura cinematic technique and re-established, enhanced,
and consolidated his reputation. The film is widely considered one of
the director's greatest achievements.[19] [20] [21]
However, Goodfellas also signified an important shift in tone in the
director's work, inaugurating an era in his career which was
technically accomplished but some have argued emotionally detached.
[22] Despite this, many view Goodfellas as a Scorsese archetype — the
apogee of his cinematic technique.
Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination for Goodfellas but
again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (Dances with
Wolves). The film also earned Joe Pesci an Academy Award (Best
Supporting Actor)
In 1990, he acted in a cameo role as Vincent Van Gogh in the film
Dreams by legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.
[edit]Cape Fear
Main article: Cape Fear (1991 film)
1991 brought Cape Fear, a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same
name, and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another
foray in to the mainstream, the film was a stylized Grand Guignol
thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles
Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). Cape Fear received a mixed
critical reception and was lambasted in many quarters for its scenes
depicting misogynistic violence. However, the lurid subject matter did
give Scorsese a chance to experiment with a dazzling array of visual
tricks and effects. The film garnered two Oscar nominations. Earning
eighty million dollars domestically, it would stand as Scorsese's most
commercially successful release until The Departed (2006). The film
also marked the first time Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with
an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
[edit]The Age of Innocence
Main article: The Age of Innocence (film)
The opulent and handsomely mounted The Age of Innocence (1993) was on
the surface a huge departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of
Edith Wharton's novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th
Century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon original
release, but was a box office bomb. However, it is much closer to
Scorsese's other films than one would expect with underlying themes of
guilt discernible in his other films being evident. In fact Scorsese
claimed that not only does he consider this his most "violent" film,
but his most personal, the one that came closest to his original
personal vision, and considers this his highest achievement, along
with the severely underrated Kundun. As of recently, it has started to
come back out into the public eye, espically in countries such as the
UK and France, but still is heavily underwatched in North America. The
film earned five Academy Award nominations (including for Scorsese for
Best Adapted Screenplay), winning the Costume Design Oscar.
[edit]Casino
Main article: Casino (film)
Scorsese directing De Niro on the set of Casino (1995).
1995's expansive Casino, like The Age of Innocence before it, focused
on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the
arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent
gangster film made it more palatable to fans of the director who
perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film.
Critically, however, Casino received mixed notices. In large part this
was due to its huge stylistic similarities to his earlier Goodfellas.
Indeed many of the tropes and tricks of the earlier film resurfaced
more or less intact, most obviously the casting of Joe Pesci as an
unbridled psychopath. Casino was by some considerable distance perhaps
Scorsese’s most violent and detached film, its early establishing
scenes verging on documentary. Any critical misgivings were tempered
by the fact the movie remains an extraordinary technical achievement,
running to three hours in length. Sharon Stone was nominated for the
Best Actress Academy Award for her performance.
[edit]A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
Main article: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American
Movies
Scorsese still found time for a four hour documentary in 1995 offering
a thorough trek through American cinema. It covered the silent era to
1969, a year after which Scorsese began his feature career, stating "I
wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries."
[edit]Kundun
Main article: Kundun
If The Age of Innocence alienated and confused some fans, then Kundun
(1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early
life of the Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, the invasion of Tibet by
China, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not least a
departure in subject matter, Kundun also saw Scorsese employing a
fresh narrative and visual approach. Traditional dramatic devices were
substituted for a trance-like meditation achieved through an elaborate
tableau of colourful visual images.[23]
The film was a source of turmoil for its distributor, Disney, who were
planning significant expansion into the Chinese market at the time.
Initially defiant in the face of pressure from Chinese officials,
Disney has since distanced itself from the project, hurting Kundun's
commercial profile.
In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the
director’s reputation. In the long term however, it generally appears
Kundun has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director,
mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour. Kundun was the
director's second attempt to profile the life of a great religious
leader, following The Last Temptation of Christ.
[edit]Bringing Out the Dead
Main article: Bringing Out the Dead
Scorsese back to neo-noir in Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with
the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic
take on their own earlier Taxi Driver.[24] Like previous Scorsese-
Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption
explicitly recalled the films of Robert Bresson.[25] (It's also worth
noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is
reminiscent of After Hours.) It received generally positive reviews,
[26] although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other
films.
[edit]2000s
[edit]Gangs of New York
Main article: Gangs of New York
In 1999 Scorsese also produced a documentary on Italian filmmakers
entitled Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, also known as My Voyage to Italy.
The documentary foreshadowed the director's next project, the epic
Gangs of New York (2002), influenced by (amongst many others) major
Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and filmed in its entirety
at Rome's famous Cinecittà film studios.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Scorsese on the set of Gangs of New York (2002).
With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, Gangs
of New York was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream
venture to date. Like The Age of Innocence, it was a 19th century-set
New York movie, although focusing on the other end of the social scale
(and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The production
was highly troubled with many rumors referring to the director’s
conflict with Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein.[27] Despite denials of
artistic compromise, Gangs of New York revealed itself to be the
director's most conventional film: standard film tropes which the
director had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely
for exposition purposes and explanatory flashbacks, here surfaced in
abundance.[28] [29] [30] The original score composed by regular
Scorsese collaborator Elmer Bernstein was rejected at a late stage for
a more conventional score by Howard Shore and mainstream rock artists
U2 and Peter Gabriel (making commercial, if little historic or
contextual sense).[31] The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes,
while the director's original cut was over three hours in length.[28]
Nonetheless, the themes central to the film were consistent with the
director's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally
endemic, and sub-cultural divisions down ethnic lines.
Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for
Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of
the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently
delayed the film for nearly a year until its release in the Oscar
season of late 2002.[32]
Gangs of New York earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best
Director. In February of 2003, Gangs of New York received ten Academy
Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best
Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. This was Scorsese's fourth Best Director
nomination, and many thought it was finally his year to win.
Ultimately, however, the film took home not a single Academy Award,
and Scorsese lost his category to Roman Polanski for The Pianist.
2003 also saw the release of "The Blues", an expansive seven part
documentary tracing the history of blues music from its African roots
to the Mississippi Delta and beyond. Seven film-makers including Wim
Wenders, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, and Scorsese himself each
contributed a 90 minute film (Scorsese's entry was entitled "Feel Like
Going Home").
[edit]The Aviator
Main article: The Aviator
DiCaprio and Scorsese again, now on the set of The Aviator (2004).
Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004), was a lavish, large-scale biopic
of director, producer, legendary eccentric, multi-millionaire, and
aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. Like Gangs of New York and, more so,
New York, New York before it, the film was another attempt by the
director to weld auteur sensibilities with the conventions of golden-
era Hollywood. The film received highly positive reviews,[33] though a
small minority of critics suggested The Aviator lacked Scorsese's
distinct directorial signature.[34][35][36][37] The film also met with
widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition.
The Aviator was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including Best
Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor -
Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Picture &
Actor - Drama. In January of 2005, The Aviator became the most-
nominated film of the 77th Academy Award nominations, nominated in 11
categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations
in nearly all of the other major categories, including a fifth Best
Director nomination for Scorsese, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best
Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), and Alan Alda for Best Supporting
Actor. Despite having a leading tally, the film ended up with only
five Oscars: Best Supporting Actress, Art Direction, Costume Design,
Film Editing and Cinematography. Scorsese lost again, this time to
director Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (which also won Best
Picture).
[edit]No Direction Home
Main article: No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces
the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and
culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire
career; rather, it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the
1960s, his then-controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-
based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound
and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous
motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in
both the United States (as part of the PBS American Masters series)
and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two Arena series) on
September 26–27 2005. A DVD version of the film was released that same
month. The film won a Peabody award.
[edit]The Departed
The neutrality of this article or section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
Main article: The Departed
Scorsese and Matt Damon on the set of The Departed (2006).
Scorsese made a much anticipated return to the crime genre with his
latest film, the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong
Kong police drama Infernal Affairs. The film once again united the
director with Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor he has worked with for three
consecutive projects. The Departed also brought Scorsese together with
fellow New Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson.
The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim with some
proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the
screen since 1990's Goodfellas,[38][39] and still others putting it at
the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver, and
Raging Bull.[40][41] With domestic box office receipts surpassing
$129,402,536, The Departed is Scorsese's highest grossing film (not
accounting for inflation).
Martin Scorsese's direction of The Departed earned him his second
Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critic's Choice Award,
his first Director's Guild of America Award, and (after five
unfruitful nominations) the Academy Award for Best Director. The award
was thought to be long overdue, and some entertainment critics
subsequently referred to it as Scorsese's "Lifetime Achievement"
Oscar, or the "Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/Goodfellas" Oscar[citation
needed]. It was presented to him by his longtime friends and
colleagues Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas,
all fellow members of the New Hollywood generation. The Academy
responded to Scorsese's win with a standing and roaring ovation. The
Departed also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture
of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime
Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film.
[edit]Future projects
Scorsese most recently has teamed with his Departed co-star Mark
Wahlberg for an HBO drama series about the development of Atlantic
City. The project will be developed in conjunction with the book,
"Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic
City" by Nelson Johnson, which has been optioned by the cable network..
[42]
Scorsese has expressed plans to make his next film project Silence,
the story of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in feudal Japan. Based on
the novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo it is projected for a 2008
release. Early in 2006 Scorsese spoke of directing the movie, and a
recent interview with his long-time editor Thelma Schoonmaker in Time
Out confirmed that this is his next film project, with her being
quoted as saying, "It's something very close to Scorsese's heart –
he's wanted to make it for many years but he's never really had the
time to write the script and get it funded. But we're all hoping that
this time it's going to happen, and it looks like we're going to shoot
it in New Zealand as well."[43] Daniel Day Lewis, Harvey Keitel and
Javier Bardem are rumoured to star in it.[44]
It has been announced that Scorsese is teaming up with scriptwriter
William Monahan again, to develop a rock ‘n’ roll epic titled The Long
Play, which was originally announced in 2000 and was intended to
follow up The Aviator if Silence couldn't be made, before Scorsese got
a hold of the script for The Departed. It's most likely that either
this or Silence will be Scorsese's next.[45]
It has been announced that Scorsese and leading man DiCaprio have
begun developing a possible film based on Edmund Morris's The Rise of
Theodore Roosevelt. As a first step, a screenplay has been
commissioned from Nicholas Meyer.[46]
It has been announced that there's a potential sequel and a prequel
about his latest mob drama movie The Departed.[47][48]
He is also developing a movie about the last legal duel in French
history, based on The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal and
Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager. The story of a 1386
duel between two knights, sanctioned by King Charles IV and the last
such bout sanctioned by the French government, it's part of the
director's new four-year deal with Paramount Pictures. It's unknown
whether Rise of Theodore Roosevelt or The Last Duel will come first,
but Silence is definitely next.[49]
In April 2003, Scorsese became attached to do a film version of Thomas
Eidson's novel St. Agnes' Stand for DreamWorks Pictures, a western
about a reluctant hero who saves a nun and a group of children from
Apache Indians. A screenplay has been written by Charles Randolph.[50]
Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit
organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the
decaying of motion picture film stock.
At a ceremony in Paris, France on January 5, 2005, Martin Scorsese was
awarded the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his contribution
to cinema.
In an interview, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro said that they are
working on a script about their childhood; both grew up in the same
neighborhood in New York.[51]
It is revealed that he would make movie based on a novel titled The
Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.[52][53]
Author Robert Casillo wrote "Gangster Priest: The Italian American
Cinema of Martin Scorsese" and it is now being made into a major
motion picture featuring Martin Scorsese's insight in his films and
their exploration into the Italian American society.
[edit]Director trademarks
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable
sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material which cannot readily be verified may be challenged and
removed.
This article has been tagged since April 2007.
Frequently casts Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, his own
mother Catherine Scorsese before her death in 1997, and, in recent
years, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Frequently works with editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Frequently works with cinematographers Michael Ballhaus and Robert
Richardson.
Begins his films with segments taken from the middle or end of the
story. Examples include Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino
(1995), and The Last Waltz (where the first song performed was
actually the concert's encore).
Frequent use of slow motion, e.g. Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver
(1976), Raging Bull.
His lead characters are often sociopathic and/or want to be accepted
in society.
His blonde leading ladies are usually seen through the eyes of the
protagonist as angelic and ethereal; they always wear white in their
first scene and are photographed in slow-motion (Cybill Shepherd in
Taxi Driver; Cathy Moriarty's white bikini in Raging Bull; Sharon
Stone's white minidress in Casino). This may possibly be a nod to
director Alfred Hitchcock. [54]
Often uses long tracking shots.
Use of montage sequences involving aggressive camera movement and
rapid editing, set to popular music.
Frequently worked with composer Elmer Bernstein and, more recently,
Howard Shore.
Opening credits for Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Casino and Cape
Fear have been designed by Elaine and Saul Bass, the latter being
Hitchcock's title designer of choice.
Before their deaths, would frequently cast his parents, Charles and
Catherine, in bit parts, walk-ons, or supporting roles.
Often has a quick cameo in his films (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The
King of Comedy, After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ (albeit
hidden under a hood), The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York). Also,
often contributes his voice to a film without showing his face on
screen. E.g., provides the opening voice-over narration in Mean
Streets and The Color of Money; plays the off-screen dressing room
attendant in the final scene of Raging Bull; provides the voice of the
unseen ambulance dispatcher in Bringing out the Dead.
Frequently uses The Rolling Stones' music, particularly the song Gimme
Shelter.
Frequently uses New York city as the main setting in his fims, eg.
Gangs of New York, Taxi Driver, The Age of Innocence, After Hours, New
York, New York. A notable exception is his latest work, The Departed.
Sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to
1920s silent film cinema(as most scenes at the time used this
transition). This effect can be seen in Casino (it is used on Sharon
Stone and Joe Pesci), Life Lessons, and The Departed (on Matt Damon).
Many of his films include references/allusions to the 1953 Oscar-
winning film Shane.
Has often stated that he thought Robert De Niro's best performance
under his direction was as either Jake La Motta in Raging Bull or
Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas
More recently, his films have featured corrupt authority figures, such
as policemen in The Departed and Gangs of New York and politicians in
Gangs of New York and The Aviator.
[edit]References in other media
This article contains a trivia section.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items into the
main text and removing inappropriate items.
This article has been tagged since June 2007.
In an episode of American Dad titled The Best Christmas Story Never,
Stan convinces Scorsese to stop taking drugs in the 70s, causing
Scorsese not to make the film Taxi Driver, leading to an alternate
timeline where the Soviet Union had conquered the United States.
In an episode of The Simpsons titled A Star Is Burns, Marge Simpson
crosses out Scorsese's name as a film critic at the Springfield Film
Festival in favor of Homer.
The band King Missile wrote a song called 'Martin Scorsese', in which
the lead singer details his obsessive worship of Scorsese's work and
the graphic, increasingly unrealistic, and eventually impossible way
in which he would like to thank Scorsese "for making the best fucking
films". The delivery is a spoken monologue, rising gradually to a
shrieking, uncontrolled crescendo. There is a 'clean' version (for
radio airplay) and an unedited version, the latter of which uses the
word "Fuck" in various permutations multiple times.
In the 1990s animated TV show "Animaniacs", the Goodfeathers, a gang
of pigeons based on the three main characters in the film Goodfellas,
hang out at a statue of the director.
In an episode of the HBO series The Sopranos, Christopher Moltisanti
sees Scorsese going into a club and yells out at him "Hey! Kundun! I
liked it!"
In the film "Knocked Up" Scorsese is mentioned by saying "See ya later
Scorsese on coke."
Scorsese appears as himself in the Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes "The
Special Section" and "Krazee Eyez Killa."
In 2007, Scorsese was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most
Influential People in The World.\
Scorsese appeared in a series of American Express commercials as a
director.
[edit]Personal life
Scorsese has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; she is his fifth
wife. They have a daughter, Francesca, who appeared in The Departed
and The Aviator.
He has a daughter, Catherine, from his first marriage to Laraine
Brennan, and a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is an actress,
from his second marriage to Julia Cameron. Scorsese was also married
to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1982. He
married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985 - their marriage ended in
divorce as well.
He is primarily based in New York City.
[edit]Filmography (as director)
1967: Who's That Knocking at My Door
1972: Boxcar Bertha
1973: Mean Streets
1974: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
1976: Taxi Driver
1977: New York, New York
1980: Raging Bull
1983: The King of Comedy
1985: After Hours
1986: The Color of Money
1988: The Last Temptation of Christ
1990: Goodfellas
1991: Cape Fear
1993: The Age of Innocence
1995: Casino
1997: Kundun
1999: Bringing Out the Dead
2002: Gangs of New York
2004: The Aviator
2006: The Departed
2007/08: Shine a Light (film)
2008: Silence
2010/12: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
2010/12: The Last Duel
TBA: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
TBA: The Long Play
TBA: Untitled Sequel To The Departed
TBA: Untitled Prequel To The Departed
TBA: Dino
[edit]Selected filmography (as actor)
1973: Mean Streets (cameo)
1976: Taxi Driver (cameo)
1983: The King Of Comedy (cameo)
1986: Round Midnight
1990: Dreams
1994: Quiz Show
1999: The Muse (as himself)
1999: Bringing Out the Dead (dispatcher)
2004: Shark Tale
[edit]References
^ The Religious Affiliation of Director Martin Scorsese Webpage
created 27 May 2005. Last modified 5 September 2005. Accessed 1 April
2007.
^ Yahoo! Movies
^ Chris Ingui. Martin Scorsese hits DC, hangs with the Hachet.
Hatchet. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
^ Finding the boy again (The Scotsman)
^ a b Scorsese on DVD (Film Freak Central)
^ Scorsese, Master Of The Rage (Washington Post)
^ Ebert, Roger (March 7, 1976), "Interview with Martin Scorsese",
rogerebert.com
^ Citizen Bickle, or the Allusive Taxi Driver: Uses of Intertextuality
^ 'I was in a bad place'
^ Cannes
^ 'Are we ever going to make this picture?'
^ Martin Scorsese: Raging Bull
^ 'Raging Bull' returns to the ring
^ Raging Bull
^ Ageing bulls return
^ The King of Comedy
^ The King of Comedy Film Review
^ Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ
^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900902/REVIEWS/9020301/1023
^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000623089
^ http://www.filmsite.org/goodf.html
^ Goodfellas (Wide Screen)
^ Kundun - Time Out
^ Bringing Out The Dead
^ Reinert on Bringing Out the Dead
^ rottentomatoes.com, Bringing Out the Dead Entry, accessed January
29, 2007
^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,860378,00.html
^ a b http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_Film_of_the_week/0,,871400,00.html
^ http://www.epinions.com/content_136317079172
^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,871715,00.html
^ http://www.scoretrack.net/ebernstein.html
^ In briefs: Gangs of New York release delayed again
^ rottentomatoes.com, The Aviator entry, accessed January 24, 2007
^ Are you talking to me - again?
^ Right guy, wrong film
^ Empire Reviews Central - Review of The Aviator
^ Rolling Stone : Aviator : Review
^ REVIEW: DEPARTED, THE
^ Movie Review - Departed, The - eFilmCritic
^ Reel Views
^ All Movie - The Departed
^ Scorsese, Wahlberg roll dice on HBO series (Reuters)
^ Thelma Schoonmaker Q&A
^ Scorsese - Faith Under Pressure
^ Scorsese & Monahan Reteam for The Long Play
^ The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (2008)
^ Movie File: 'Departed' Trilogy, Jennifer Garner, Steve Carell & More
Martin Scorsese considers prequel, sequel to cop drama; Garner spills
the beans about hush-hush project
^ Departed Sequel … and Prequel?
^ Scorsese's Last Duel
^ Role Call: Scorsese Embarks on Western Epic, Aniston Joins Dark
Comedy
^ Scorsese's mob rule
^ Scorsese's Kiddie Flick?!?!
^ Scorsese gets inventive at WB
^ Hitchcock and Women
[edit]See also
List of directors
List of film collaborations
[edit]External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Martin Scorsese
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese at the Internet Movie Database
Martin Scorsese at the TCM Movie Database
Martin Scorsese at SensesOfCinema.com
Martin Scorsese Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
Scorsese interviews on BBC
1999 Princeton Q&A lecture (RealMedia video)
Podcast: Scorsese Discusses His Digital Workflow Techniques
[hide]
v • d • e
Films directed by Martin Scorsese
1960s What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)
• It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964) • The Big Shave (1967) • Who's
That Knocking at My Door (1967)
1970s Street Scenes (1970) • Boxcar Bertha (1972) • Mean Streets
(1973) • Italianamerican (1974) • Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(1974) • Taxi Driver (1976) • New York, New York (1977) • American
Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978) • The Last Waltz (1978)
1980s Raging Bull (1980) • The King of Comedy (1983) • After Hours
(1985) • The Color of Money (1986) • The Last Temptation of Christ
(1988) • New York Stories (1989)
1990s Goodfellas (1990) • Cape Fear (1991) • The Age of Innocence
(1993) • Casino (1995) • Kundun (1997) • My Voyage to Italy (1999)
• Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
2000s Gangs of New York (2002) • The Aviator (2004) • No Direction
Home (2005) • The Departed (2006) • Shine a Light (2007) • Silence
(2008)
Awards
Preceded by
Kenneth Branagh
for Henry V BAFTA Award for Best Direction
for GoodFellas
1990 Succeeded by
Alan Parker
for The Commitments
Preceded by
João César Monteiro
for Recordações da Casa Amarela
and Kei Kumai
for Sen no Rikyu Venice International Film Festival
Silver Lion for Best Director
for GoodFellas
1990 Succeeded by
Bigas Luna
for Jamon, Jamon
Preceded by
Clint Eastwood AFI Life Achievement Award
1997 Succeeded by
Robert Wise
Preceded by
Robert Altman
for Gosford Park Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
for Gangs of New York
2003 Succeeded by
Peter Jackson
for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Preceded by
Ang Lee
for Brokeback Mountain Academy Award for Best Director
for The Departed
2006 Succeeded by
TBD
Preceded by
Ang Lee
for Brokeback Mountain Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion
Picture
for The Departed
2007 Succeeded by
TBD