Martin Scorsese

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Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese at Cannes in 2002.
Birth name	Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese
Born	November 17, 1942 (age 64) Flushing, New York, USA
Spouse(s)	Laraine Brennan Julia Cameron Isabella Rossellini (1979-1983) Barbara De Fina (1985-1991) Helen Morris (1999-)
Academy Awards
Won: Best Director 2006 The Departed Nominated: Best Director 1980 Raging Bull 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ 1990 Goodfellas 2002 Gangs of New York 2004 The Aviator Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay 1990 Goodfellas (with Nicholas Pileggi) 1993 The Age of Innocence (with Jay Cocks)
Golden Globe Awards
Best Director - Motion Picture 2003 Gangs of New York 2007 The Departed
BAFTA Awards
Best Direction 1990 GoodFellas

Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: [skɔɹˈsɛsi]; Ita: [lu'tʃaːno skoɾ'seːze]) (born November 17, 1942) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Director's Guild Of America award winner and critically acclaimed American film director.

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 prestigious 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. He was previously nominated for Best Director five times,^[3] but had never won.

Contents 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 Themes 10 Personal life 11 Filmography (as director) 12 Selected filmography (as actor) 13 References 14 See also 15 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

[edit] Mean Streets

Main article: Mean Streets

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.^[8] 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.^[9] (Indeed the film was completed with much encouragement from Cassavetes, who felt Boxcar Bertha was undeserving of the young director’s prodigious talent.)^[7]

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

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,^[10] 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 DeNiro'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.^[11]

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).^[12]

Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes film festival,^[13] 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.^[14] 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

By many accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert DeNiro 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.^[15] The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's prestigious Sight & Sound magazine.^[16][17] 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).^[18] 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.^[19]

[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.^[20] 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).^[21]

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 showbusiness 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)

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 furor, worldwide protests against its supposed blasphemy effectively turning a low budget independent movie into a media sensation.^[22] 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

After a decade of mixed commercial results, gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most stylistically faithful film since Raging Bull. A return to Little Italy, De Niro, and Joe Pesci, Goodfellas offered a virtuoso display of the director's cinematic technique and re-established his reputation as one of Hollywood's premier directors. The film is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements.^[23][24][25]

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.^[26] 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)

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 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.^[27]

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

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.^[28] Like previous Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recalled the films of Robert Bresson.^[29] (It's also worth noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is reminiscent of After Hours.) It received generally positive reviews,^[30] 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.

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.^[31]

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 Polański 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

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,^[32] although some critics suggested The Aviator lacked Scorsese's distinct directorial signature.^{[33][34][35][36]} 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 is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Main article: The Departed

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,^[37][38] and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull.^[39][40] With domestic box office receipts surpassing $129,402,536, The Departed is Scorsese's highest grossing film.

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. 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..^[41]

• 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."^[42] Daniel Day Lewis, Harvey Keitel and Javier Bardem are rumoured to star.^[43]

• It has been recently 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.

^[44]

• 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.^[45]

• It has been announced that there's a potential sequel and a prequel about his latest mob drama movie The Departed.^[46][47]

• 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.^[48]

• 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.^[49]

• Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and decaying 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.^[50]

• It is revealed that he would make movie based on a novel titled The Invention Of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.^[51][52]

[edit] Director trademarks

• Frequently casts Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, his own mother Catherine Scorsese and, in recent years, Leonardo DiCaprio.

• Frequently works with editor Thelma Schoonmaker.^[53]

• 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). Possibly a nod to director Alfred Hitchcock (www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/hitch/tour8.html).

• 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, especially the song Gimme Shelter.

• Frequently uses New York city as the main setting in his fims, eg. Gangs of New York, Taxi Driver, After Hours, New York, New York

• Sometimes highlights characters in a scene with a spotlight-style circle. This effect can be seen in Casino and The Departed.

[edit] References in other media

• 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 other events that mess up the present year.

• 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!"

[edit] Themes

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The main themes of Scorsese's work are intimately wrapped up in his Roman Catholic upbringing and his early attraction to the priesthood. Scorsese has once remarked that when he was growing up the most powerful people in his neighborhood were the gangsters and the priests. He claims that as a filmmaker he is in some ways a combination of the two.

Redemption and sin are the primary themes of Scorsese's films. His heroes tend to be fallen souls seeking redemption in a world of corruption. They often achieve this redemption only through a "passion", a crucifixion of sorts, in which a blood penance is extracted for their former sins. Charlie's final scene in Mean Streets, Travis Bickle's psychotic rampage in Taxi Driver, and Jake LaMotta's pounding his fists into the walls of his prison cell in Raging Bull would all seem to be expressions of this obsession with sin and redemption.

Scorsese's films have, oddly enough, become more bleak in this regard as his career goes on. Goodfellas, Casino, and The Aviator all end with their protagonists trapped in a metaphorical purgatory from which it is uncertain they will be redeemed.

Loneliness and drive also permeate Scorsese's films. His characters tend to be individualist or misunderstood outcasts who are compelled by emotional forces. In these his films, these forces tend to gather strength until they burst out into a frenzy. It has been said that this is one of the factors which attracts actors to his films. This is because it gives them the opportunity to play emotionally aggressive characters.

The corruption of the material world and the fall from paradise are also persistent themes in Scorsese's films, particularly in his gangster films. His characters are often torn between the temptations of the material world and the self-betrayal of their own spirits that the material world demands of them. This conflict often erupts into a cataclysmic fall from grace that sometimes leads to a quiet redemption. This theme is most explicit in Raging Bull, which ends with a New Testament verse spoken by a blind man who has been given sight by Jesus. (However, this quote can be read as part of the film's dedication to Haig P. Manoogian, his NYU film school mentor.)

[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 yet 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
• 2008: Silence
• 2010/12: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
• 2010/12: The Last Duel
• ----The Invention of Hugo Cabret
• ----The Long Play
• ----Untitled The Departed 2 Sequel
• ----Untitled The Departed 3 Prequel
• ----Dino

[edit] Selected filmography (as actor)

• 1973: Mean Streets (cameo)
• 1976: Taxi Driver (cameo)
• 1986: Round Midnight
• 1990: Dreams
• 1994: Quiz Show
• 1999: The Muse (as himself)
• 2004: Shark Tale

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of directors
• List of film collaborations

[edit] External links

• Martin Scorsese at the Internet Movie Database
• Martin Scorsese at the TCM Movie Database
• Martin Scorsese Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
• They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
• Scorsese interviews on BBC
• 1999 Princeton Q&A lecture (RealMedia video)
• Photoshoot of Martin Scorsese on YouTube
• Podcast: Scorsese Discusses His Digital Workflow Techniques

Films directed by Martin Scorsese

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? • It's Not Just You, Murray! • The Big Shave • Who's That Knocking at My Door • Street Scenes • Boxcar Bertha • Mean Streets • Italianamerican • Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore • Taxi Driver • New York, New York • American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince • The Last Waltz • Raging Bull • The King of Comedy • After Hours • The Color of Money • The Last Temptation of Christ • New York Stories • Goodfellas • Cape Fear • The Age of Innocence • Casino • Kundun • My Voyage to Italy • Bringing Out the Dead • Gangs of New York • The Aviator • No Direction Home • The Departed • Shine a Light

Awards
Preceded by Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain	Academy Award for Best Director 2006 for The Departed	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Clint Eastwood	AFI Life Achievement Award 1997	Succeeded by Robert Wise