Understanding Scorsese: A Martin Scorsese Profile (Part 5)

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the fifth of a five part feature... read parts one, two, three and four.

“I didn’t think of it as Hong Kong. I reacted to what Bill Monahan put together in the script; I liked the idea,” explained American filmmaker Martin Scorsese when discussing The Departed (2006). “Taking from the Hong Kong trilogy of Andrew Lau‘s film [Infernal Affairs], that’s the device, the concept of the two informers. [I am] totally, whether I like it or not, drawn to stories that have to do with trust and betrayal. I found that I kept being drawn back to the script and to the project. It became something else.” Questioned about his shift from portraying Italian criminals to those of Irish heritage, the director observed, “The differences between different ethnic groups as gangsters, that’s purely technical.” Cast in the plot-twisting thriller are Leonardo DiCaprio (The Beach), Matt Damon (The Bourne Supremacy), Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), Martin Sheen (Badlands), Ray Winstone (Edge of Darkness), and Vera Farmiga (Source Code). “It’s really rare in a film of this budget to have characters this interesting,” stated Matt Damon of the $90 million production in which he portrays a gangster mole planted in the Boston police force. Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the undercover police officer, is in agreement with his co-star. “These characters are two sides of the same coin in a lot of ways,” stated DiCaprio. “They come from different backgrounds but they each could have easily made choices the other character made, depending on the circumstances.” The frequent Scorsese collaborator added, “I think the working experience was interesting because it was almost like we were shooting two entirely different films.”

“We shot in an armory in Brooklyn. That’s where there was space,” revealed Martin Scorsese. “I think it was an issue of a very good shooting deal in New York as oppose to Boston.” Leonardo DiCaprio was impressed with those helping behind the scenes. “We had a great technical advisor name Tom Duffy who knew the entire history of Boston and what the streets were like; he was there throughout the entire filmmaking process. The police gave us unbelievable advice. Matt actually went on a raid at a crackhouse.” The frontline knowledge is not something Matt Damon is going to forget. “The ride-along was a great experience,” said Damon. “I was lot closer to the action than I was comfortable with, I’ll tell you that. We did the whole deep breathing, the little huddle before we went in. They gave me a bulletproof vest and put me at the end of the line of people who went crashing through the door.”

Working with three-time Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson left a lasting impression on Leonardo DiCaprio. “He had a short run; he filmed his scenes and then he left. But those were some of the most intense moments of the film.” DiCaprio went on to give an example, “We did the [table] scene one way, and I remember Jack [telling] Marty he didn’t feel that [his portrayal of Costello] was intimidating enough…I came in the next day and the prop guy told me, be careful, he’s got a fire extinguisher, a gun, some matches, and a bottle of whiskey. Some things are in the film that he did that day and some things aren’t.” Matt Damon is quick to point out that, “None of the violence in this film is gratuitous and the characters pay a price for their violence. That’s a good message to send out to people – that there’s a price to pay.” Acknowledging that there is usually a body count associated with his movies, Scorsese remarked, “The thing that gets me going is a sense of energy that can be misdirected into violence.”

“I’ll tell you about Gimme Shelter and The Departed,” stated Martin Scorsese who has also used the Rolling Stones’ song in Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995). “I was coming home from shooting in New York, in heavy traffic on 57th Street. I could hear the song getting louder, coming from the car next to me. This guy with long hair was slamming his head against the steering wheel shouting, ‘It’s just a shot away.’ I said, ‘That’s The Departed. That’s the theme of the movie – it has to be there.’” Leonardo DiCaprio found his role to be extremely challenging. “Playing a guy that has to relay to the audience this constant 24-hour panic attack…surrounded by people that would literally blow my head off if I gave them any indication of who I am, coupled with the fact that I’m sitting across the table from a homicidal maniac who will maybe light me on fire – that gives your character a whole new dimension.” DiCaprio did not let his director down. “There were a lot of scheduling issues and he had to wait a long time for his performance to be actually photographed,” stated Scorsese. “By the last month of shooting, a lot had been building up in his character – simmering anxiety, tension, and anger. It was just extraordinary. We shot all at once and then as we were editing, my editor Thelma [Schoonmaker], looked at me and said, ‘He’s coming off really strong.’”

“It’s the only movie of mine with a plot,” chuckled Martin Scorsese who, upon be rewarded with the Oscar for Best Director after four previous nominations, mischievously asked, “Could you double-check the envelope?” Thelma Schoonmaker, who won her third Academy Award, could not be happier for her colleague. “It’s really wonderful that Marty won at long last,” said Schoonmaker. “We were praying for that. We didn’t really expect to win adapted screenplay, editing, and best picture. We thought maybe Babel [2006] would. Marty was so surprised. The first thing he said to me after the ceremony was, ‘And we won best picture too!’ It would have been pretty devastating if he hadn’t won. I don’t think I could have taken it, frankly.” The only one of the five nominations that The Departed missed out on at the Academy Awards was Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg); it was not as lucky at the BAFTAs where the thriller contended for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Editing, Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the David Lean Award for Direction. Martin Scorsese won for Best Director at the Golden Globes while the film, which grossed $290 million worldwide, received nominations for Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Drama (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg), and Best Screenplay. Thelma Schoonmaker was presented with an Eddie Award by the American Cinema Editors, Scorsese won a Directors Guild of America Award, William Monahan was honoured with Best Adapted Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America, and the movie received a Producers Guild of America nomination. The Departed was lauded at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards with Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg), while the National Board of Review Awards handed out trophies for Best Director and Best Ensemble. The Screen Actors Guild of America Awards nominated The Departed for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Leonardo DiCaprio).

The recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors next helmed The Key to Reserva (2007), a commercial for Spanish sparkling wine producer Freixenet. Martin Scorsese discovers three and a half pages of an unfinished screenplay written by Alfred Hitchcock which he decides to film. The 10-minute production stars Simon Baker (L.A. Confedential), Kelli O’Hara (The Dying Gaul), Michael Stuhlbarg (Body of Lies), Christopher Denham (Duplicity), Richard Easton (Dead Again), Ted Griffin (Must Love Dogs), and Nellie Sciutto (Fixing Rhonda).

“Over the years I went to see a number of their shows,” said Martin Scorsese who has often used the music of the Rolling Stones in his movies. “I like the provocation of their music, the anger and frustration of some of their expressions and the subject matter of their songs; Gimme Shelter is an obvious one. People today are crying out for shelter and there is no shelter anymore; even more so now, it’s an anthem of our time.” The director added, “Watching the Stones, I thought [about what] it would be like trying to film a moment in time.” The idea became a reality in 2006 when Scorsese aided with a vast arsenal of cameras filmed the legendary British band performing at New York’s Beacon Theater. “It was as if the first one [concert] was a warm-up. The second started like it was an encore and built from there,” explained the filmmaker. “When the curtain went up I didn’t know what I’d get. Trust me, it’s possible to have 17 cameras and miss everything.” Grossing $16 million worldwide the project titled Shine a Light (2008) was nominated by the Motion Picture Sound Editors for the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Music in a Musical Feature Film.

Next on the cinematic agenda for Martin Scorsese was an adaptation of a psychological thriller written by novelist Dennis Lehane, called Shutter Island (2010). Two U.S. Marshals are sent to a mental institution located on a remote island to investigation the disappearance of an interned murderess. “When I read the script,” remarked the native of Flushing, New York, “I realized it had its roots in something that is classic; it speaks to something very basic about our human nature and about who we are, what we want to conceal and what we have to accept. If we try to know ourselves, are we too afraid sometimes to go into areas that are unpleasant and irrational? Ultimately, what this is all about is ‘know thyself’.” Central to the storyline is the character of U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels. “This film depends on you not knowing where you’re at in any given situation. And so with that in mind, everyday on set was a challenge for me – how I interacted with specific characters, [and] how much I [should] let on as far as what Teddy is really going through.” Scorsese found himself being drawn into the fictional tale. “I tried to pull back a few times and not get so emotionally and psychologically involved…But this story, these characters, it was a very unsettling experience.”

Shutter Island was shot at the notorious Medfield State Hospital in Massachusetts. Built in 1892 and shut down in 2003, at its height the medical facility housed 2200 patients and is rumoured to be haunted by the tormented souls of past patients. Starring in the $80 million psychological thriller are Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Max von Sydow (Snow Falling on Cedars), Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Emily Mortimer (Redbelt), Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs), Jack Earle Haley (Watchmen), Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent), John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac) and Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line). “I was very intrigued by this screenplay,” said Leonardo DiCaprio. “It was very much a throwback to great detective genres of the past, whether it be Vertigo [1958], Out of the Past [1947], or Laura [1944] which were films he screened for us.” Martin Scorsese explained his selection of films. “I screened Laura for everyone just to get a reference to the nature of the detective,” said the director. “There are references to film noir, references to Psycho [1960], to psychological thrillers, to horror films, to films that are basically composed of dreams. So I think ultimately that even if the surprise ending is known – although it has several endings in a way – hopefully it’s a picture you can watch repeatedly because of the behaviour of the characters.” As for what drew him to the subject matter, Scorsese stated, “I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries of the mind because it’s how we perceive what we term reality. Witnesses in a court of law will swear they saw something but if they stood two or three feet in another direction maybe they’d have seen it differently.”

“Emotionally and physically, it was one of the tougher films I’ve ever had to make. It was trying on all of us,” remarked Leo DiCaprio whose trials and tribulations on the set did not go unnoticed by his director. “Leo didn’t like the rats, especially when he put his hand on one. That was one of the tougher days. Or should I say weeks?” Martin Scorsese could empathize with his star. “When I got to shooting and editing it, it was like being thrown down a spiral [staircase].” The filmmaker added, “I think I just tried to approach it from my own reaction to reading the material.” Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley enjoyed collaborating with the man behind the camera. “Marty directs like a lover. Everything is held together by affection for his craft, his actors, his crew, the material, and the great journey of cinema in our lives,” said Kingsley. “I think he must have about 40,000 films in his head or at least on his computer. He knows exactly the scene, without being a teacher and without being heavy, he just invites you to share something and it really is contagious. It was marvelous on Shutter Island for Leo, Mark [Ruffalo] and I.” Earning $295 million worldwide Shutter Island was lauded by the National Board of Review for Best Production Design & Art Direction; it also received nominations for Best Art Direction & Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound at the Satellite Awards. Leonardo DiCaprio won Choice Movie Actor – Horror or Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards, while other nominations for the psychological thriller included Choice Movie Actress – Horror or Thriller (Michelle Williams) and Choice Movie – Horror or Thriller.

Co-directed by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones A Letter to Elia (2010) follows the journey of filmmaker Elia Kazan from Group Theatre to Hollywood, and his controversial role in the blacklisting of his colleagues. The 60-minute documentary features interview footage with Kazan and film clips from On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Baby Doll, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Face in the Crowd, America, America, and The Last Tycoon.

Heading to television, Martin Scorsese directed an 80-minute pilot episode costing $18 million for the HBO. “Boardwalk Empire [2010] was made for what I guess you would call the small screen but we made it like a film,” said the director of the series which is based on the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, The High Times and Corruption in Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson. “The 1920s in my head were always very present because my parents referred to them; the music, the people, the clothes. I know all the songs from that period; I know all the films. We knew it all and so it was a natural transition. But you know I really was fascinated with the idea of working with Terry Winter [The Sopranos] and these guys, and taking these characters over 13 hours, developing them, developing their story, the complications of corruption in American politics.” The Emmy-winning creator of the TV series, Terence Winter, found himself also being drawn to the era. “The 1920s were the most interesting to me because it was an era that hasn’t really been depicted often in cinema, and almost never in television.”

Boardwalk Empire features the acting talents of Steve Buscemi (Fargo), Michael Pitt (The Dreamers), Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men), Shea Whigham (Tigerland), Aleksa Palladino (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Michael Stuhlbarg, Stephen Graham (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), Vincent Piazza (Assassination of a High School President), and Paz de la Huerta (Enter the Void). “At its centre was this incredible lead character, Nuck Johnson, upon whom Steve’s character is based,” said Winter. “This was a guy who was incredibly conflicted, being equal parts politician and gangster. And then, that was coupled with the massive changes going on in the 1920s: like Prohibition, the women’s vote and broadcast radio.” The first 12-episode season came with a price tag of $65 million and won Best Actor in a Television Series - Drama (Steve Buscemi), and Best Television Series – Drama at the Golden Globes where it also contended for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Kelly Macdonald). The Screen Actors Guild handed out nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Buscemi), and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. For his contribution in helming the pilot episode, Martin Scorsese won a Directors Guild of America Award.

Also for HBO, Martin Scorsese produced Public Speaking (2010), a documentary about Fran Lebowitz, who is an American author know for her sardonic social commentary which has led her being christened the modern day Dorothy Parker. Another documentary Scorsese has in the works is a profile on a former Beatle called Living in the Material World: George Harrison (2011).

Venturing into the realm of children’s literature, Martin Scorsese is cinematically adapting The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Renamed Hugo Cabret (2011), the story revolves around an orphan who secretly inhabits the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris; he seeks to unravel a mystery surrounding his deceased father and an automaton. The cast of the adventure film stars Asa Butterfield (Son of Rambow), Chloë Moretz (Let Me In), Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Emily Mortimer, Michael Pitt, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Christopher Lee (Season of the Witch), Helen McCrory (Becoming Jane), Richard Griffiths (The History Boys), Michael Stuhlbarg, and Ray Winstone. “It is really a story of a little boy,” said Scorsese. “He does become friends with the older George Méliès who was discovered in 1927, or 1928, working in a toy store, completely bankrupt. And then he was revived in a way with a beautiful gala in 1928, in Paris. And in my film, the cinema itself is the connection – the automaton, the machine itself becomes the emotional connection between the boy, his father, Méliès, and his family.” The director is breaking into a new territory for him – 3D filmmaking. “Every shot is rethinking the camera, [and] rethinking the narrative – how to tell a story with a picture. Now, I’m not saying we have to keep throwing javelins at the camera; I’m not saying we use it as a gimmick, but it’s liberating. It’s literally a Rubik’s Cube every time you go out and design a shot and work out a camera move, or a crane move. But it has a beauty also; people look like…moving statues.” Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker shares Scorsese’s enthusiasm. “It’s a whole new kind of film for us. It’s very visual, very little dialogue, lots of opportunities for wonderful 3D shots, because the boy’s job is to keep the clocks wound, so you can imagine the giant wheels being built. Everyone’s excited about it. It will have a broad appeal.” Chosen to play George Méliès is Ben Kingsley. “It examines the early days of cinema through the eyes of a child,” remarked Kingsley who enjoyed being reunited with the filmmaker. “One of the blessings of working under his love and guidance is that whatever you offer the camera he will see every scrap that you offer. He doesn’t miss anything.”

Other projects in the works for Martin Scorsese are a biopic on Hollywood icon Frank Sinatra and a cinematic adaptation of Silence by Shusaku Endo, about Portuguese Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan. There are suggestions that Scorsese will reunite with Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver) to produce two films based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt which is about mob assassin Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran. The filmmaker has also been connecting with his other acting muse Leonardo DiCaprio who is to star in The Wolf of Wall Street; it is based on the memoir penned by high living stockbroker Jordan Belfort who was sent to prison for stock manipulation.

Along with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Evelyn F. Burkley from the WGA, both of which he received in 2003, Martin Scorsese added another award to his collection in 2010; the Golden Globes bestowed upon him the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Over the course of his career, the New Yorker has directed 17 different actors in Oscar nominated performances and during a brief tenure at NYU he taught future moviemakers Oliver Stone (Platoon), Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) and Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused). “He infects you with his enthusiasm,” stated Thelma Schoonmaker. “That’s why he’s such a good teacher; he doesn’t lecture you, he makes you excited and want to see all the films he loves. As for the work, it’s so intense, so fulfilling, you feel so proud of the film at the end. I know many other editors who work on films they hate and they’re bitter. I’m never that way.” Leonardo DiCaprio is equally full of praise. “He saved me. I was headed down a path of being one kind of actor, and he helped me become another one. The one I wanted to be.”

Even after making four movies together, DiCaprio remains astounded by the cinematic knowledge of Martin Scorsese. “He’s a professor of film. The man has seen almost every film ever made up until 1980. You get an education while working with him every single day. He screens movies for you to talk about specific scenes and what he’s trying to convey up on the screen. You can ask him a question about a character or the way a scene should go and he can show you 20 different examples of filmmakers that have done that in the past, the way it’s been done right, the way it’s been done wrong. It’s an incredible learning experience.” There is no doubt that the Academy Award-winning director is devoted to his craft. “I’m literally obsessed with the filmmaking process,” readily admitted Scorsese. “Given the chance to learn or experience or something, whether it’s the storm scene in Cape Fear [1991], the world of the 1920s, Hollywood and aviation in The Aviator [2004], I find myself wanting to get back there on set and then, especially in the editing room, to see those images come together. I really enjoy doing it.”

For more on the director be sure to visit the Martin Scorsese Fansite and ScorseseFilms.com, along with the BFI documentary A Personal Journey with Scorsese Through American Movies.

Short Film Showcase - What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Short Film Showcase - The Big Shave
Short Film Showcase - The Key to Reserva

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Understanding Scorsese: A Martin Scorsese Profile (Part 4)

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the fourth of a five part feature... read parts one, two and three.

“The first newspaper article Nick Pileggi showed me was about the police covering a domestic fight on a Las Vegas lawn one Sunday morning,” explained American filmmaker Martin Scorsese regarding the origins of Casino (1995). “In the article it slowly began to unravel, this incredible ten-year adventure that all these people were having, culminating in this husband and wife arguing on their lawn, with her smashing his car, the police arriving, and the FBI taking pictures.” Pileggi served as the co-screenwriter for the cinematic adaptation of his book about Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a top gambling handicapper, who is sent by the Mob to manage the day-to-day operations of a Las Vegas casino. “The Tangiers is fictional but there were four – the Stardust, the Fremont, the Frontier and the Marina – which the Rothstein character controlled. We just made them one giant hotel and combined all the elements. Where else could a great handicapper become the most important man in the city, with total control? We tried to show how far his control ran, even over the kitchen and the food.”

Other changes were made to the story which is based on the life of Frank Rosenthal. “In the very first script we started with the scene of them fighting on the lawn. Then we realized that it was too detailed and didn’t create enough dramatic satisfaction at the end of the picture. So Nick and I figured we would start with the car exploding; he goes up into the air and you see him in slow motion, flying over the flames – like a soul about to take a dive into hell.” The director added, “I show it three times, in different ways. Finally, the third time, we see it the real way. That was how he remembered it. The actual fellow this is based on told me he saw flames coming out of the air conditioning unit first, and he didn’t know what it could be. Then he looked down and saw his arm on his fire; he thought of his kids. The door wasn’t properly locked, so he rolled out and was grabbed by two Secret Service men who happened to be casing the joint because of Ronald Reagan’s visit the following week. They pulled him aside and it was only when the car went up that he realized it was intentional.”

“There’s something interesting about voiceover: it lets you in on the secret thoughts of the characters, or the secret observations of an omniscient viewer,” stated Martin Scorsese. Cast in the crime drama which grossed $116 million worldwide are Robert De Niro (Flawless), Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), Joe Pesci (The Good Shepherd), James Woods (Salvador), Don Rickles (Kelly’s Heroes), Alan King (The Bonfire of the Vanities), Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), and Dick Smothers (Speed Zone!). “It is the most harrowing kind of editing you can do because you’re never sure of the structure and you’re not following a dramatic thread. There’s story, but no plot,” observed the native of Flushing, New York. “Ultimately, it’s a tragedy. It’s the frailty of a being human. I wanted to push audiences’ emotional empathy with certain types of characters who are normally considered villains.” Sharon Stone received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and won Best Actress – Drama at the Golden Globes where Martin Scorsese contended for Best Director. Long-time Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker was nominated for an Eddie by the American Cinema Editors.

“I started to get interested in him in 1989, when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Before that I didn’t hear anything about Tibet,” stated Martin Scorsese of when he became interested in the Dali Lama. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Melissa Mathison (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial) introduced Scorsese to the exiled religious leader and helped develop Kundun (1997). “I read the script and I liked its simplicity, the childlike nature of it, that it wasn’t a treatise on Buddhism, or a historical epic in the usual sense,” said the director. “What you really dealt with was a young man – his spiritual upbringing, and this incredible responsibility which he inherits and how he deals with it on the basis of nonviolence.” Summarizing the big screen tale, Scorsese remarked, “It’s a very straightforward story of the finding of the Dalai Lama as a young child, in Amdo province in Tibet. It takes you through the maturing of the boy until he was a young man of 18, when he had to make decisions which he knew would be dealing with – literally – the life and death of his own country. What interested me was the story of a man, or a boy, who lives in a society which is totally based on the spirit and finally, crashing into the twentieth century, they find themselves face to face with a society which is one of the most anti-spiritual ever formed, the Marxist government of the Chinese communists.” Cast in the $28 million production which earned $6 million domestically are Tenzi Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzi, Tenzin Yeshi Paichang, Tencho Gyalpo, Robert Lin, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar, and Geshi Yeshi Gyatso. Kundun contended for Best Art Director & Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score at the Oscars. The biopic also received nominations for Best Original Score at the Golden Globes and Best Foreign Film by the Australian Film Institute, while winning Best Cinematography at the National Society of Film Critics Awards.

The American Film Institute presented Martin Scorsese with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, however, the filmmaker was hardly resting on his laurels in 1999; he released two projects. Il mio viaggio in Italia (1999) is a two-part documentary narrated by Scorsese; it celebrates the Italian films from Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Fellini and Antonioni which had a major creative impact on him as a moviemaker. The other was a feature film that reunited him with a veteran creative partner.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999) stars Nicolas Cage (The Rock) as a burned out New York City emergency room paramedic. Regarding his reason for collaborating with Paul Schrader (Blue Collar) on the cinematic adaptation of the book by Joe Connelly, Martin Scorsese stated, “He has an understanding of the material…He has a line into suffering and redemption and what it means to forgive yourself.” The moviemaker turned out to be right about Schrader. “He responded to it right away because of what the character of Frank Pierce [Cage] is going through. He is an emergency room paramedic who is going through battle fatigue and he is really wondering if he is making any difference at all. He goes into one corner and saves a drug dealer who may be responsible for hundreds of deaths, and goes into another corner and because of a freak accident loses a 12 year old homeless kid. So he is thinking at this point in his life, ‘Is there any pattern to this?’” Scorsese was fascinated by the main character. “What is interesting about Frank, and this is what Paul caught on to, is that he loves the job because he brings people back to life, which makes him feel like God. And he has to learn in this movie that he is not God. That’s what we thought was so interesting about it. He takes on the suffering of everybody, he puts it on his own shoulders and can’t get through it now. In the end they tell him that no one asked him to suffer.”

Producing the $55 million drama which grossed $17 million domestically was a grueling affair. “The film took 75 nights to shoot. 45 of the nights were in the streets,” revealed Martin Scorsese who had another problem. “What almost held me back a little bit was that it was another New York story. How do you shoot an ambulance at night in New York? I’ve shot a lot of scenes at night in New York. What different way can I find to do these scenes? The first night I went out with a real ambulance. I figured it out – the hallucinatory aspect of it. You’re sitting in the front, the spinners going, the rock’n’roll is playing, cabs are attacking you. Suddenly you realize you think you see things that aren’t there and if you stay there long enough it’s quite an experience.” The director was pleased with the performance of Nicolas Cage. “I love his expressive face and the nature of his acting.” Performing along with Cage are John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down), Patricia Arquette (Ed Wood) and Marc Anthony (Man on Fire). “It’s like delegating caring,” observed Scorsese. “We delegate caring to the paramedics. We delegate caring to the nurses or hospitals but we can’t do that. We have to stay in touch with these feelings. I am not saying that we should all run after ambulances. I’m saying there has to be that line of humanity between us and the city and people are suffering in the city.”

In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, British musician Paul McCartney orchestrated a celebrity benefit concert at Madison Square Gardens. The event was documented in an Emmy-nominated television special called The Concert for New York City (2001) with Martin Scorsese contributing a short film called The Neighborhood.

“When you’re a director, there are some movies that you want to make,” explained Martin Scorsese. “There are other movies that you have to make. I made Gangs of New York [2002] because I had to. I became fascinated with the world of Manhattan’s Five Points when I first heard the legends as a child. And in 1970, while staying at a friend’s house on Long Island, I came across Herbert Asbury’s book The Gangs of New York. Lured by its title, I picked up the book and read it in one sitting. The stories of the gangs with such wonderful names as Dead Rabbits and Plug Uglies and the way they operated – and gangsters like Bill The Butcher or Monk Eastman – fascinated me. Add to this the Civil War erupting and the ensuing New York Draft Riots of 1863 and I had a great subject for a movie.” The project became a labour of love. “I started to imagine characters, to compose shots and sequences in my head. My friend Jay Cocks started working on the script. And in 1977, with producer Alberto Grimaldi, we took out an ad in Variety announcing the movie. Getting it made proved more difficult. Large sets would have to be built, since nothing of this part of New York of the 1850s and 1860s exists today. It would be a costly venture. Finessing the script was just as daunting. We had to create a personal story and convey the importance of all the different factors – political, economic and ethnic – that together made New York a powder keg ready to explode.”

“I felt that the movie had to be an epic, like the films I’d loved as a child,” revealed Martin Scorsese. “We decided to go with a traditional conflict – revenge – and created the characters as variations of the hero, the villain and the girl.” The director felt that the villain was not complex enough so he had Jay Cocks make Bill “The Butcher” Cutting the surrogate father to the hero, Amsterdam Vallon. In 1999, his former agent Michael Ovitz approached Scorsese about reviving Gangs of New York and suggested his client should play the part of Amsterdam. The filmmaker accepted the casting suggestion which led him to work with a new acting muse – Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception). Performing with DiCaprio in the $100 million production are Daniel Day-Lewis (The Last of the Mohicans), Cameron Diaz (Knight and Day), Liam Neeson (Unknown), Jim Broadbent (Another Year), Henry Thomas (Legends of the Fall), Brendan Gleeson (The Guard), and John C. Reilly (Cedar Rapids). An orphan (DiCaprio) seeks to avenge the murder of his father by secretly becoming the ward of the gang leader (Day-Lewis) who killed him. The massive sets were built at the legendary Italian studio Cinecitta; they consisted of 1 ½ miles of mid-19th century lower Manhattan, which included the port of New York and two life-sized movable ship hulls.

Grossing $194 million worldwide, the 19th century period drama received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Art Direction & Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Original Screenplay. At the BAFTAs, Gangs of New York won Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and contended for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Film, Best Make Up & Hair, Best Production Design, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, and the David Lean Award for Direction; the Golden Globes lauded it Best Director and Best Original Song while handing out nominations for Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Drama (Daniel Day-Lewis), and Best Supporting Actress (Cameron Diaz). The American Cinema Editors honoured Thelma Schoonmaker with an Eddie Award, whereas Scorsese received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. Daniel Day-Lewis won Outstanding Performance for a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, while the Writers Guild of America nominated the screenwriting trio of Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay. The film received a Producers Guild of America Award nomination.

Collaborating with six other filmmakers which included Clint Eastwood (Pale Rider), Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire), and Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), Martin Scorsese helmed an episode of the seven-part PBS documentary series The Blues (2003) which traces the history of the musical genre. Scorsese’s contribution titled Feel Like Going Home has him traveling with musician Corey Harris through Mississippi and on to West Africa. Featured in the 90-minute production are performances by Willie King, Taj Mahal, Otha Turner, and Ali Farka Toure as well as rare archival footage of Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. A year later a TV documentary was commission by American Express and The History Channel. In Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty (2004), the director examines the historical impact of the iconic landmark and her relevancy in Post-September 11th America.

“Warren Beatty and Stephen Spielberg had wanted for many years to make a [Howard] Hughes picture,” stated Martin Scorsese as to how he became involved with The Aviator (2004). “And I said, ‘Where do you start and where do you end? I wouldn't know where to begin.’ And so I thought it was more or less their territory until I read the script by John Logan [Gladiator]. I saw the first scene of this mother washing a boy in the bath and she's dealing with cholera and quarantine, and the next sequence is this young guy shooting a movie out in the desert and I thought, ‘Now is he going to go through the whole life of Howard Hughes?’ But he didn't.” Contemplating what attracted him to the screenplay, the director remarked, “Ultimately, what I really liked was the way the story developed into a struggle between him, the government and Pan Am. I thought that was interesting. I think it has a lot of resonance for today, particularly the investigation committee smearing people.” The story became a history lesson for Scorsese. “I hadn’t known anything about Pan Am and Juan Trippe. When I read it I thought that almost can’t be. He won his point in the Senate. He stormed out of the place and people actually applauded. This is true. I didn’t know that. It was true. Also that he flew the Hercules. I didn’t quite understand what a feat, what an accomplishment that really was until I read the script and then went back and did research. It was making a point, a point of honor, that the plane was airworthy. That was it. It may not have flown long but it got up in the air. And it’s the way we fly today.”

“Often people have tried to define him in biographies,” observed Leonardo DiCaprio who plays the reclusive billionaire in the $110 million biopic. “No one seems to be able to categorize him. He was one of the most complicated men of the last century. And so I got this book, brought it to Michael Mann [The Insider], and John Logan came onboard and really came up with the concept of saying, “You can do ten different movies about Howard Hughes. Let’s focus on his younger years. Let’s watch his initial descent into madness but meanwhile, have the backdrop of early Hollywood, these daring pioneers in the world of aviation that were like astronauts that went out and risked their lives to further the cause of aviation.” DiCaprio added that Hughes was “the first American billionaire who had all the resources in the world but was somehow unable to find any sense of peace or happiness. It’s that great see-saw act that goes on in the movie.” In the end what compelled him to great success proved to be his tragic flaw. “He was so obsessive about everything he’d gotten involved with, whether it be planes or women or the films that he made. And that is the direct result of his OCD [Obsessive Compulsion Disorder].”

The Aviator stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett (Heaven), Alan Alda (What Women Want), Alex Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Kate Beckinsale (Whiteout), and John C. Reilly. Martin Scorsese had no reservations about DiCaprio being attached to the project. “The lankiness, the tallness, the frame itself, I felt that he did remind me of the young Howard Hughes,” said the director who was equally impressed with his female cast. “Kate Beckinsale, when you first see her on the screen, trying to decide what name she should give TWA Airlines, she's absolutely gorgeous… You have that sense of Ava Gardner there. The scene where she hits him with the ashtray is based on a fight between the two of them. She wouldn't take anything from him.” As for the second Cate who performs in the picture, Scorsese stated, “She just had it: the gestures, the lines, and the look to be Katharine Hepburn.” There was some creative license taken when cinematically depicting the life of Howard Hughes. “There are a couple of things in this movie that weren’t exactly what really happened,” revealed Leonardo DiCaprio. “For example, Howard Hughes never did the thing with buying the photos of Katharine Hepburn, of her and Spencer Tracy. Instead the intention was the same: he bought her The Philadelphia Story which she ended up doing on stage, and inevitably [it] got her an Academy Award after they broke up. The intention was still there. He still loved her, he still cared about her as a person, and still did something like that for her.” Not everything went smoothly on the film set. Leonardo DiCaprio recalled the scene where he speaks through a bedroom door to Cate Blanchett, trying to convince her he is still sane, “We did take after take, and I just wasn’t getting it. Then Marty pulls me aside and says, ‘I’ve got to quit acting and just see through the eyes of the character that I’m playing. That I love this woman.’ And I got it…Marty isn’t trying to be a hard-ass. He’s trying to get you to forget that you’re acting.”

The collaboration between the two men paid off as The Aviator grossed $214 million worldwide; it won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction & Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), while it received nominations for Best Director, Best Sound Mixing, Best Picture, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Alan Alda), and Best Original Screenplay. At the BAFTAs, the biopic won Best Film, Best Make Up & Hair, Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), and Best Production Design; it competed for Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Best Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Alan Alda), Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, and the David Lean Award for Direction. The Golden Globes presented the historical tale with Best Picture – Drama, and Best Actor – Drama (Leonardo DiCaprio) and handed out nominations for Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), and Best Screenplay. The Screen Actors Guild Awards lauded Cate Blanchett with Outstanding Performance for a Female Actor in a Supporting Role plus nominated The Aviator for Outstanding Performance for a Cast in a Motion Picture and Leonardo DiCaprio for Outstanding Performance for a Male Actor in a Leading Role. American Cinema Editors presented an Eddie Award to Thelma Schoonmaker, and Martin Scorsese received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. The Writers Guild of America nominated John Logan for Best Original Screenplay and the film itself won a Producers Guild of America Award. Interestingly, like Howard Hughes, Scorsese has his own phobia – a fear of flying. “Every time I get on an airplane I know I’m not really an atheist. ‘Oh, God, dear God,’ I say the minute the plane takes off. ‘I’m sorry for all my sins, please don’t let this plane crash.’ And I keep praying out loud until the plane lands.”

Aired as part of American Masters on PBS and Arena on BBC Two, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) is a four-hour documentary produced by Martin Scorsese. The Peabody Award-winning television program chronicles the life and artistic development of the legendary “song and dance man” from his historical British concerts to his controversial decision to forsake his acoustic guitar for an electric one. Scorsese received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Direction for Nonfiction Programming and was made an honoury president of the Vienna Film museum.

Despite the accolades there was one award that continued to elude the veteran moviemaker. Would his luck ever change? The answer was to be provided with his next film, a remake of an acclaimed Hong Kong thriller trilogy.

Continue to part five.

For more on the director be sure to visit the Martin Scorsese Fansite and ScorseseFilms.com, along with the BFI documentary A Personal Journey with Scorsese Through American Movies.

Short Film Showcase - What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Short Film Showcase - The Big Shave

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Understanding Scorsese: A Martin Scorsese Profile (Part 3)

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the third of a five part feature... read parts one and two.

When he was approached by Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), who wanted to revise his signature role of Fast Eddie Felson from The Hustler (1961), Martin Scorsese was skeptical about the project. “I had a lot of reservations about it,” admitted the filmmaker of the planned cinematic adaptation of The Color of Money (1986) by novelist Walter Tevis. “I felt it was a literal sequel. There were even a few minutes of film inserted in it from the first picture. It had its own merits, but it certainly wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to do.” A meeting was held in New York between the acting legend and the director where the decision was made to keep the name of the book but to change the story; assigned the task of writing the screenplay was author Richard Price. “To write the script, I spent a lot of time traveling with pool hustlers,” revealed Price who routinely met with Newman and Scorsese. “In the writing sessions, it was the three of us constantly reworking, constantly coming up with and batting ideas back and forth,” remarked Scorsese of the script development for the $14 million production. “Eventually, the writing sessions took on the aspects of rehearsals. So by the time we did the picture, I’d already had two weeks of rehearsal – it was the most preplanned film I had ever made.”

Explaining how he viewed the character of Felson, Martin Scorsese said, “In twenty-five years he’s become a sharpie and hustler of a different type. He doesn’t play pool anymore; he doesn’t have the guts to do that. Be he sees young talent, takes it, and makes money from it. He takes this young kid under his wing and corrupts him. And then somewhere along the road, in the education process, he reeducates himself and decides to play again. It’s about a man who changes his mind at the age of fifty-two.” Grossing $52 million domestically, the drama stars Paul Newman, Tom Cruise (Risky Business), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (The Abyss), Helen Shaver (Who Has Seen the Wind), Forest Whitaker (The Crying Game), and John Turturro (Miller’s Crossing). At the Academy Awards The Color of Money won Best Actor (Paul Newman) and received nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Best Art Direction & Set Decoration, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The Golden Globes nominated Paul Newman for Best Actor – Drama and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio for Best Supporting Actress. The National Board of Review lauded Paul Newman with the award for Best Actor.

Collaborating with American songwriter and performer Michael Jackson, Martin Scorsese helmed a music video for the title track of Bad (1987). The dance choreography, which was inspired by the musical West Side Story (1961), takes place in a New York City subway station. Receiving a nomination at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards, the elaborate 18-minute production stars up-and-comer Wesley Snipes (Blade) performing with Jackson.

Turning down offers from Universal to direct Sea of Love (1989) and White Palace (1990), Martin Scorsese chose to revive a controversial project. Back in 1972, actress Barbara Hershey (Hoosiers) gave the native of Flushing, New York, a copy of the book called The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) by Nikos Kazantzakis. Rising costs and religious protests about the controversial sequence where the crucified messiah imagines himself having children with Mary Magdalene and the sisters of Lazarus caused Paramount to cancel the original 1983 production which was to star Aidan Quinn (Blink). Undaunted by the setback, Martin Scorsese’s agent at the time, Harry Ufland, kept shopping the religious tale to other studios with Universal finally agreeing to finance it in 1987. “He’s God. He’s not deluded,” stated the director. “I think Kazantzakis thought that, I think the movie says that, and I know that I believe that. The beauty of Kazantzakis’ concept is that Jesus has to put up with everything we go through, all the doubts, fears, and anger.” Addressing the dream scene which was decreed to be blasphemy by members of the Christian community, Scorsese said, “The one sexual thing the priests told Catholic boys they could not be held responsible for was nocturnal emission. It was like an involuntary fantasy. And with Jesus it’s the same thing. How can you hold him responsible for this fantasy? Of course, Catholic boys were taught that, if you entertained fantasy for awhile, it became an occasion for sin.”

Cast in the $7 million production are Willem Dafoe (Platoon), Harvey Keitel (The Duelists), Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton (Alien), David Bowie (The Prestige), Verna Bloom (Animal House), Victor Argo (The Pick-up Artist), Randy Danson (The Scenic Route) and Peggy Gormley (Bad Lieutenant). “I did want to break away from the sound of the old biblical epics to make the dialogue plainer, more contemporary,” explained Martin Scorsese. “One of the elements we kept from the book is that Lazarus never quite heals properly.” In regards to the famous Biblical figure raised from the dead by Jesus, the director remarked, “It is all done with a sense of humour. And if you see it with an audience, they’re going with it.” As for who was responsible for the execution of Jesus, Scorsese said, “The whole point of the movie is that nobody is to blame, not even the Romans. It’s all part of the [divine] plan.” Earning $8 million domestically, The Last Temptation of Christ resulted in Martin Scorsese contending for Best Director at the Oscars. The period drama received Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Score and Best Supporting Actress (Barbara Hershey); while at the Razzie Awards, Harvey Keitel competed for Worst Supporting Actor.

Collaborating with colleagues Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese produced one of three segments featured in a $15 million anthology titled New York Stories (1989). Allen’s only creative stipulations were that the tales had to take place in New York City and that the projects abide by budget and schedule. Assembling his contribution called Life Lessons allowed the director to realize a decade and half old ambition. “It tells the end of an affair between a famous painter, about 50, and his young assistant, whom he uses as a subject for his work,” said Martin Scorsese. “It’s based on the diaries of Anna Polina, one of Dostoyevsky’s students.” Originally the moviemaker wanted to make the main character a writer but Richard Price convinced Scorsese to make him a painter. Starring in the drama which is “…about the difficulties of defining love.” are Nick Nolte (The Good Thief), Rosanne Arquette (Le grand blue), Richard Price, and Martin Scorsese. “The moment she says she’s leaving, he starts to paint really well. Even in the student/teacher relationship, there are creative jealousies and a constant testing of each other. I always find it interesting when the pupil has to move on.” Screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, New York Stories earned $11 million at the domestic box office.

Next on the cinematic agenda for Martin Scorsese the production of the 20 minute documentary Made in Milan (1990); it revolves around fashion designer Giorgio Amani reflecting on fashion, his family heritage, and the city of Milan while preparing for a show.

Returning to feature filmmaking, Scorsese helmed a project that proved he could make art and money. “I read a review of Wiseguy back when I was directing The Color of Money in Chicago, and it said something about this character, Henry Hill, having access to many different levels of organized crime because he was somewhat of an outsider,” remarked Martin Scorsese who hired the author of the book, Nicholas Pileggi, to co-write the screenplay about the rise and fall of three gangsters played by Ray Liotta (Narc), Robert De Niro (Once Upon a Time in America) and Joe Pesci (Home Alone). “I knew from the beginning that I wanted Ray Liotta to play Henry Hill. Mike Ovitz [his agent at the time] was helpful in protecting the work and working it out so that the studio and I each got what we wanted. We’re not talking about a blockbuster. We’re talking about something which, if handled properly, can make some money.” Scorsese could relate to the character played by Liotta. “Henry [Hill] says that as far back as he can remember he wanted to be a gangster. From the moment I enrolled in NYU film school, I knew I wanted to be a director. Within a year I was planning my first feature.” Because a television series and a movie by Brian De Palma (The Untouchables) shared the same name as the source material, the cinematic adaptation was renamed Goodfellas (1990). “I was more concerned with showing a lifestyle and using Henry Hill as basically a guide through it.” The filmmaker saw the film as an opportunity to utilize a different perspective. “I liked the everyday banality of it; daily life in the Mafia on the lower echelons as opposed to the bosses of the crime families.”

“I wanted Goodfellas to move as fast as a trailer,” stated Martin Scorsese. “I usually put notes on the sides of the script, how the camera should move. I wanted lots of movement and I wanted it throughout the whole picture.” The man behind the camera was mentally editing as he was filming. “The shots were designed so that I knew where the cuts were going to be.” Freeze frames were used for dramatic effect. “Images would stop; a point was being made in his [Hill’s] life.” Commenting on the lifestyle being portrayed on the big screen, Scorsese remarked, “I always quote Joe Pesci, who pointed out that wiseguys have a life cycle – or an enjoyment cycle – of maybe eight or ten years, before they either get killed or go to jail and start that long process of going in and out like a revolving door.” The famous restaurant scene where Pesci states, “What’s so funny about me?” to Ray Liotta was inspired by real life. “It’s based on something that happened to Joe. He got out of it the same way – by taking the chance and saying, ‘Oh, come on, knock it off.’ The gentleman threatening him was a friend, [but] a dangerous person.” Performing with Liotta, Pesci, and De Niro in the $25 million production are Lorraine Bracco (Radio Flyer), Paul Sorvino (The Cooler), Frank Sivero (The Wedding Singer), Tony Darrow (Small Time Crooks), and Catherine Scorsese.

“People got so angry that they stormed out of the theatre. They thought it was an outrage that I made these people so attractive,” said Martin Scorsese. “These guys are in business to make money, not to kill people, not to create mayhem.” Goodfellas would gross $47 million domestically and at the Academy Awards would win Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci) while contending for Best Supporting Actress (Lorraine Bracco), Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The gangster tale was lauded at the BAFTAs for Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay; it also competed for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Cinematography; the Golden Globes handed out nominations for Best Director, Best Picture – Drama, Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Lorraine Bracco), and Best Screenplay. Martin Scorsese received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination; the National Society of Film Critics presented awards for Best Film and Best Director, and the National Board of Review selected Joe Pesci for Best Supporting Actor. “When I lost for Raging Bull,” reflected Scorsese, “that’s when I realized what my place in the system would be, if I’d survived at all: on the outside looking in. The Academy sent out a very strong message to the people who made Goodfellas and The Grifters [served as a producer], no matter how talented they are, they might get some recognition, but they will not get the award.” In 2000, Goodfellas was inducted into the National Film Registry.

Martin Scorsese initially balked at the idea of helming a remake of a 1962 thriller that stars Robert Mitchum (Ryan’s Daughter) as a revengeful ex-convict who terrorizes the family of his former attorney, portrayed by Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird). “Bob De Niro and Spielberg [War Horse] asked me to read the script while I was finishing up Goodfellas and by the end of editing the film, I had read Cape Fear [1991] three times. And three times I hated it,” admitted the director. “I thought the family was too clichéd, too happy and then comes along a bogeyman to scare them. They were like Martians to me. I was rooting for Max to get them.” Spielberg had Martin Scorsese rewrite the script which took inspiration from the 1962 screenplay written by John Webb and the book by author John D. MacDonald. “Cady was the malignant spirit of the guilt in the family – the avenging angel,” observed the director regarding the purpose of the ex-convict character. “Punishment for everything you felt sexually. It is the basic moral battleground of moral ethics.” Filmmaker Paul Schrader (American Gigolo) understood the difficulties that his colleague had with the $34 million project. “Cape Fear was the first time he’d worked with such a large budget since New York, New York [1977],” remarked Schrader, “and it demanded an audience level and mainstream sensibility that he’s not completely comfortable with.”

Taking over the roles made famous by Mitchum and Peck (both of whom make cameo appearances) are Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte who perform with Jessica Lange (Blue Sky), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), Joe Don Baker (GoldenEye), Martin Balsm (12 Angry Men), Illeana Douglas (Stir of Echoes), and Fred Thompson (The Hunt for Red October). Explaining his reasoning for doing the picture, Martin Scorsese said, “Would it be a different risk if every picture I made was about Italian Americans in New York? I don’t think so. Because they’d say, ‘That’s all he can do.’ So I’m trying to stretch.” The experimentation with mainstream material paid off for Scorsese as the thriller grossed $183 million worldwide and received Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis). At the BAFTAs, Cape Fear contended for Best Editing and Best Cinematography; while the Golden Globes nominated it for Best Actor – Drama (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis). Martin Scorsese competed for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and Juliette Lewis won Most Promising Actress at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards.

Cinematically adapting the novel The Age of Innocence (1993) penned by Edith Warton was next on the agenda for Martin Scorsese. In 1870s New York, affluent lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) finds his pending marriage to May Welland (Winona Ryder) threatened by his sexual attraction to the newly arrived Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). The period drama allowed the director the opportunity to experiment with different filmmaking techniques such as replacing the fading in and out of black at the beginning and ending of scenes with colours like red and yellow. “I was interested in the use of colour like brushstrokes throughout the film,” stated Scorsese who also moved away from the tradition of using straight cut editing between images. “Besides the dissolves that were indicated in the script, I stumbled upon the idea of shortening many of the shots that I took.” There is a particular dissolve which stands out to the moviemaker. “The one I like the most is a very simple one: the dinner scene in France during the honeymoon montage. It’s a high angle of the table, and the camera booms down and dissolves as the camera is going over the table and the food, and then it tilts up and you see Jonathan Pryce and Daniel Day-Lewis talking.” The New Yorker added, “That is one of the best ones of all because it looks like an Impressionist painting.”

“I didn’t want to develop the film to a climatic sequence and handle that sequence in a normal narrative dramatic style,” stated Martin Scorsese. “The dinner party could have been done very straight – and could have been just as effective with everybody smiling and looking at him [Newland Archer] and the next thing he says goodbye to Ellen…We could have played dramatically, but I wanted to display it, like he’s in a display case, and have the prose add that extra dramatic punch.” Assembling the scenes for the $34 million production was not always an easy matter for the director. “One of the hardest scenes to cut was when he [Archer] goes to Mrs. Mingott [Miriam Margolyes] to talk about moving up the wedding and she tells him about Ellen’s past life in Europe. We had a little problem with who to be on. Basically, Mrs. Mingott is giving us exposition but we need to see the effect on him. It looks simple, but it wasn’t.” Questioned as to why he chose to have the picture narrated in the third person by Joanne Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve), Scorsese answered, “I wanted to give the audience the impression of the feelings I had when I read the book.” The moviemaker explained further, “I loved that idea of a female voice, taking us through, very nicely, and setting us up for the fall.” Scorsese played around with the perspective of the camera. “I think you make up your own set of rules for each one in the terms of the subjectivity of the piece. In fact, the ball sequence begins with the narrator explaining who the people are, but ends subjectively: May looks up into the camera and who’s standing there? It’s Archer.”

Inserting the sound into the period picture presented certain difficulties for Martin Scorsese. “In certain places this film is a little hard because it’s not a modern world and you can’t play with the sounds like screeches of cars, sirens, telephones ringing, and jet plane noises, that I usually like to play with.” Performing in The Age of Innocence are Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns), Winona Ryder (Reality Bites), Miriam Margolyes (Babe), Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park), Alec McCowen (Frenzy), Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago), Mary Beth Hurt (The World According to Garp), Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society), Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), and Stuart Wilson (Enemy of the State). Grossing $32 million domestically, the film won Best Costume Design and contended for Best Supporting Actress (Winona Ryder), Best Art Direction & Set Decoration, Best Original Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards; the BAFTAs presented it with Best Supporting Actress (Miriam Margolyes) along with nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Winona Ryder), Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. The Golden Globes lauded The Age of Innocence with Best Supporting Actress (Winona Ryder) as well as nominations for Best Director, Best Picture – Drama, and Best Actress – Drama (Michelle Pfeiffer). Martin Scorsese received a Directors Guild of American Award nomination; the National Board of Review rewarded him with Best Director and Winona Ryder with Best Supporting Actress.

Working with the British Film Institute, the filmmaker hosted a four-hour documentary titled A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995) which was aired in two parts on Channel Four in the UK. To explain the subject matter, Scorsese divided directors into three categories: the illusionists who developed new cinematic techniques (D. W. Griffin, F.W. Murnau), the smugglers who hid subversive messages in their stories (Douglas Sirk, Samuel Fuller), and the iconoclasts who attacked social conventionalism (Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick).

Inspired by another book written by Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese reunited with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for a gangster tale that takes place in Las Vegas.

Continue to part four.

For more on the director be sure to visit the Martin Scorsese Fansite and ScorseseFilms.com, along with the BFI documentary A Personal Journey with Scorsese Through American Movies.

Short Film Showcase - What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Short Film Showcase - The Big Shave

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Understanding Scorsese: A Martin Scorsese Profile (Part 2)

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the second of a five-part feature... read part one here.

“It’s true that some films will involve me more than others,” admitted American filmmaker Martin Scorsese. “It’s also true that I might have never made Taxi Driver [1976] were it not for the success of Alice [Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, 1974]. The question of commercialism is a source of worry. Must one make a choice, must it be a matter of either setting your sights on winning an Academy Award and becoming a millionaire, or making only the movies you want to make and starving to death?” The $1.3 million production about a lonely New York City taxi driver (Robert De Niro), who has an unrequited romantic attachment with political campaign volunteer (Cybill Shepherd) and becomes a vengeful angel for a child prostitute (Jodie Foster), potently harnessed the sense of public disillusionment fueled by the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. “I had to make that movie. Not so much because of the social statement it makes, but because of its feeling about things, including things I don’t like to admit to myself.” A veteran of a number of failed marriages, the director could relate to the emotional turmoil endured by Travis Bickle (De Niro). “I know the feeling of rejection that Travis feels, of not being able to make relationships survive.”

“The best way is to start with a character and then put him through scenes, through conflicts, that illustrate your theme,” instructed Martin Scorsese. “When Travis [De Niro] falls in love with a woman, he can’t admit he wants to make love to her… The movie deals with sexual repression, so there’s a lot of talk but no sex, lovemaking, no nudity. If the audience saw nudity, it would work like a release valve and the tension that’s been building up would be dissolved. The valve in Taxi Driver is not released until Travis finally lets loose and starts shooting.” One of the most famous scenes in cinema was the result of a creative collaboration between the director and his leading man. “I did improvise him talking in the mirror: ‘Are you talking to me?’ It was in the script that he was looking at himself in the mirror, doing this thing with the guns, and I told Bob, ‘He’s got to say something. He’s got to talk to himself.’ We just started playing with it and that’s what came out.” Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs), who was 12 years old at the time of filming, was impressed with the ability of Scorsese to bring out the best in his cast members. “There’s a big difference between someone who performs with you and somebody who asks you to perform for them,” stated Foster. “He is there. Marty gets behind your eyes.”

Despite Columbia executives’ disdain for having to enduring the expense of on-location principle photography, Martin Scorsese insisted on shooting Robert De Niro (Stardust) talking to Cybill Shepherd (The Last Picture Show) in an actual coffee shop. “I placed them by a window so you can see all of Columbus Circle, the cars, the whole city,” explained the filmmaker. “New York City is a character in the movie.” Scorsese was left emotionally drained from his constant battles with the Hollywood studio. “That night, I went through a number of crises and made a lot of phone calls. I said to a friend, ‘That’s it. If they don’t like the way I’m going to make the picture, then I won’t make the picture.’ That’s when you realize that you really have to love something enough to kill it.” His devotion to the story came at a great personal cost to the native of Flushing, New York. “For me it was just the beginning of going into an abyss for about two years and coming out barely alive. It was a few weeks after Taxi Driver that I started playing with drugs.” Cast along with De Niro, Shepherd and Foster in the drama which grossed $28 million domestically are Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs), Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein), Albert Brooks (Lost in America), Leonard Harris (Hero at Large) and Martin Scorsese. At the Academy Awards, Taxi Driver contended for Best Picture, Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster), and Best Original Score; while the BAFTAs lauded it with Best Supporting Actress (Foster), Best Newcomer (Foster), and the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music as well as nominations for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Editing. The Golden Globes nominated Taxi Driver for Best Actor – Drama (De Niro) and Best Screenplay; it also won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Robert De Niro was presented with the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Paul Schrader received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination Best Original Screenplay – Drama, and Bernard Herrmann contended at the Grammy Awards for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture. Commenting on the enduring acclaim for the film which was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994, Martin Scorsese remarked, “I was in China in 1984 and a young man from Mongolia talked to me at length about Taxi Driver, about the loneliness. That’s why the film seems to be something that people keep watching over and over. It’s not the shoot-’em out ending.”

“It’s about the decline of big bands and a couple, a saxophonist and a girl singer in a band, who try to make a go of it but they have no money; they break up and get back together after making it,” explained Martin Scorsese of his ill-fated 1940s musical New York, New York (1977) which stars Liza Minnelli (The Oh in Ohio), Robert De Niro, Lionel Stander (Once Upon a Time in the West), Barry Primus (Absence of Malice), Mary Kay Place (Being John Malkovich), Georgie Auld, George Memmoli (Rocky), and Dick Miller (The Terminator). “In the picture, I tried to fuse whatever was a fantasy – the movies I grew up with as a kid – with the reality that I experienced myself.” The creative decision of the director caused the production budget to balloon to $14 million. “It became a little bigger than we thought because of this concept I had of doing the picture in the old style, which is sound stages and back lots.” Though the title suggests otherwise, the entire principle photography took place in Los Angeles. “14 weeks became twenty-two weeks mainly because of the fact that it was a musical. Irwin Winkler, Bob Chartoff and I had never done a musical before so we underscheduled the picture mistakenly.”

Earl Mac Rauch spent two years composing the original script. “Whenever we would ask for a change of two or three pages, he would bring twelve pages in and they were terrific,” recalled Martin Scorsese. “A whole new direction, whole new character things. He is a good writer and what happened was it became unmanageable in terms of making a shooting script.” The director turned to his veteran collaborator for help. “We needed structure. So Mardrik Martin of Mean Streets came in…. He wrote some scenes, some key dialogue.” Martin worked with Scorsese’s wife at the time Julia Cameron to reinvent the screenplay. “I reshot a couple of things at the end, because up until that point, I had been so close to the subject matter, [and] the characters that I couldn’t see how they should end as characters.” A test screening of New York, New York, resulted in sequences being cut from the picture. “The biggest thing was the Happy Endings production number. A lot of people felt it overbalanced the picture. It was 11 minutes long. The movie was a commercial disappointment, earning $16 million domestically. The BAFTAs nominated New York, New York for Best Costume Design and Best Soundtrack; while at the Golden Globes it contended for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (Robert De Niro), Best Actress – Musical or Comedy (Liza Minnelli), and Best Original Song. The Santi Jordi Awards presented Robert De Niro with the trophy for Best Performance in a Foreign Film. Scorsese was given the opportunity to restore some of the sequences removed in order to achieve a 2 hour and 45 minute theatrical runtime. “The entire Happy Endings number, along with all the other scenes we liked, are in the television version, which is three to three-and-one-half hours [long].”

“I shot the whole thing incognito,” confessed Martin Scorsese of his documentary rock-concert film, The Last Waltz (1978), which was filmed at San Francisco’s Winterland in the fall of 1976. I was suppose to be resting, taking time off between shooting and editing New York. It was all very secret. Irwin Winkler [New York, New York’s producer] didn’t know I’d done it until it was over and then, when he found out, he was furious.” The director conceived the project chronically the last live performance of The Band as an opera; he borrowed the set of La Traviata from the San Francisco Opera. Scorsese sat down with his cinematographer Michael Chapman to discuss the colour lighting changes required to emphasize the content of each musical moment. Permission was obtained to dig into the floor of the Winterland to construct a tower that would enable Martin Scorsese to film wide angle shots. The resourceful moviemaker employed crab dollies in places on the stage which would not obscure the view of audience members. “We went in thinking, we’d document the Band’s last concert and maybe we’ll get something, maybe we won’t. Then when footage came back and we looked at it on the KEM, I just said, ‘Wow. This is fantastic. We’ve got a movie.’”

Additional footage was filmed. Scorsese interspersed three studio shot numbers into the production which enabled him to experiment with pyrotechnics and interview members of the group. Film editor Jan Roblee suggested placing the footage of the last song Don’t Do It at the beginning of the film thereby turning the concert into a flashback. “I had the feeling that the movie audience could become more involved with the concert if we concentrated on the stage. Besides, after Woodstock [1970], who wants to see the audience anymore?” Appearing on stage with Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson are Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Neil Young, The Staples, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, and Ron Wood. “The movie was therapy. It was the only thing that held me together,” confided Martin Scorsese whose marriage to writer Julia Cameron fell apart after the birth of their daughter. New York, New York was a box office failure, and he was replaced by Gower Champion as the director of the struggling stage sequel to his musical starring Liza Minnelli called The Act. “There was a lot of high living. At first, you felt like you could make five films at once. Then you wound up spending four days in bed every week because you were exhausted and your body couldn’t take it.” In and out of hospital suffering asthma attacks, Scorsese ended up in hospital with internal bleeding on Labour Day 1978. “Marty got a doctor who conveyed the message that he either alter his life or he was going to die,” revealed musician Robbie Robertson who roomed with the filmmaker. “We knew we had to change trains. Our lives were way too rich. The cholesterol level was unimaginable.”

American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince (1978) is a documentary Martin Scorsese produced about an ex-drug addict and road manager for Neil Diamond who portrayed a gun dealer in Taxi Driver. As Steve Prince talks about his family, the filmmaker intersperses home movie clips shot during Prince’s childhood. Some of the stories told have served as cinematic inspiration for the likes of Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and Richard Linklater (Waking Life). During the opening credits, Time Fades Away by Neil Young is played. A sequel was released called American Prince (2009) which was helmed by Tommy Pallotta.

“I remember having read the book in California when I was finishing Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” recalled Martin Scorsese of the autobiography written by boxer Jake La Motta which was brought to his attention by Robert De Niro. “I also remember a long conversation with Bobby during a night in my office at Warner Bros.. Honestly, it wasn’t like a bolt of lightning. No matter what anyone claimed later, I didn’t even notice Jake’s opening line, ‘When my memories come back to me, I have the feeling that I’m watching an old film in black and white.’ My reasons for shooting in black and white have nothing to do with this quotation.” Contemplating his reasoning for not shooting in colour, the director stated, “Our memories of boxing from the 40s are in black and white, like the newsreels and photographs of that time.” Scorsese explained further, “The final reason was that several films on boxing were in preparation: The Champ [1979], Rocky II [1979], The Main Event [1979], [and] Matilda [1978]. I wanted Raging Bull [1980] to be very different visually and to evoke the admirable photography of James Wong Howe in Sweet Smell of Success [1957].”

“Mardik did two and half years of research and interviews,” said Martin Scorsese. “He took off in all directions, and he even spent a year writing a play about Jake. The more eye witness accounts he got, the more things got mixed up.” The story became overly ambitious. “The script was way too long. Everything was there, Jake’s childhood, his father, the prison and even his testimony before the Kefauver Commission in New York – but I didn’t want to hear anything about any boxing matches!” A new structure had to be found so Scorsese recruited Paul Schrader to rewrite the script. “Schrader had the idea of opening with the speech on the stage and linking that to Jake’s first defeat, in Cleveland. An unjust and inexplicable defeat…The essential thing was for the audience to sympathize with Jake right away.” Concerned about making the main character unlikable, Scorsese decided to tone down the domestic violence. “Schrader had kept the scene in which Jake knocks out his first wife during a party and, thinking she’s dead, imagines different ways to get rid of the body…There was also a scene where his wife climbs up on the fender of his car to keep him from starting it. This violence came too early. I was happy with just the table overturned and a couple of swear words.”

“Here’s a man who is methodically destroying himself, who is pulling others down with him, who falls into the deepest hole – and who pulls himself up again,” stated Martin Scorsese in regards to what attracted him to produce the biopic. A major difference between the autobiography and the film is that the characters of Peter Savage and Jake’s brother Joey are combined into one character. Cast in the $18 million production are Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci (My Cousin Vinny), Cathy Moriarty (Casper), Frank Vincent (The Crew), Nicholas Colosanto (Family Plot), Mario Gallo (King Kong), Frank Adonis (Wall Street), Joseph Bono (Analyze That), Frank Topham, and Martin Scorsese. “The first match is the only one in which we used the reactions of the audience,” said the director as to how he constructed the boxing scenes. “The last meeting with Robinson is completely abstract. There are wide angle and foggy shots because at this stage no one is worrying about the punches which landed so well. The ring is twice as big as it was in reality. It’s not a matter of literally translating what Jakes sees and hears, but to present what the match means for him, all the while respecting as much as possible, the historical truth.” Scorsese carried on to say, “With the exception of the match against Dauthille, where we were outside the ropes, I was in the ring the whole time with the camera, just as attentive to the physical reality of the punches and the panting as I was to the psychological dimension of the encounter.” The choice not to film the movie in colour caused the filmmaker to improvise. “I had to use a lot of blood because we were shooting in black and white, but that’s just secondary. The real violence is inside.”

The first flashback being setoff with Jake La Motta practicing to That’s Entertainment was an act of serendipity. “We found it by accident one night at the editing table, when I was in despair about not being able to connect Jake’s bloated face of the 60s with his young face of the 40s,” recalled Martin Scorsese. “Two tracks accidentally overlapped and bang! The sound connected the two eras.” The principle photography went over budget with ten weeks of shooting fight scenes that in the end amounted to nine minutes of screen time. “I went through a serious crisis. I didn’t want to do the film any longer. ..Physically, I was also in terrible shape. I spent four days in the hospital hovering between life and death. I was lucky I survived.” Grossing $23 million domestically, Scorsese dedicated the film to his former NYU professor Haig Manoogian. “When I took his first course in the 60s…he gave me the energy to become a filmmaker.” Raging Bull won two Oscars for Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Editing; it also contended for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Cathy Moriarty), Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Sound. At the BAFTAs, the boxing biopic was rewarded with Best Editing and Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles (Pesci) while competing for Best Actor (De Niro), and Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles (Moriarty). The Golden Globes honoured Robert De Niro with Best Actor – Drama as well as handing out nominations for Best Director, Best Picture – Drama, Best Supporting Actor (Pesci) and Best Supporting Actress (Moriarty). The New York Film Critics Circle Awards presented Robert De Niro with Best Actor and Joe Pesci with Best Supporting Actor. Martin Scorsese received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination and film editor Thelma Schoonmaker won the Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film from the American Cinema Editors. In 1990, Raging Bull was inducted into the National Film Registry.

Unwanted notoriety came to Martin Scorsese in 1981 when John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impressed actress Jodie Foster; he had been obsessed with her since seeing Taxi Driver. Fearing a violent public reaction to the revelation, the director attended the Academy Awards surrounded by undercover FBI agents. Interestingly, the next picture by Scorsese was about a struggling comedian who resorts to extreme measures in order to gain public attention.

The King of Comedy (1982) stars Robert De Niro as novice comedian Rupert Pupkin who kidnaps a famous talk show host played by Jerry Lewis (The Nutty Professor) in an attempt to get himself on television. “I can identify with Pupkin,” remarked Martin Scorsese who utilized static shots throughout the picture in an effort to simplify things. “It’s the same way I made my first pictures with no money and with the constant rejection – going back and going back until finally, somehow, you get a lucky break.” The moviemaker understands the destructive drive of the character. “I wanted to look at what it’s like to want something so badly you’d kill for it. By kill I don’t mean kill physically, but you can kill the spirit, you can kill relationships, you can kill everything else around you in your life.” Performing in the $20 million production with De Niro and Lewis are Sandra Bernhard (Hudson Hawk), Diahnne Abbott (Love Streams), and Shelley Hack (Annie Hall). The drama with the movie poster tagline “It’s no laughing matter.” grossed $3 million domestically. “A close friend of mine told me two months before the film was finished, ‘The buzz is bad.’ I hate that. When the buzz is bad, people don’t want to be associated with the picture. You feel totally abandoned. I must say, that was painful. Because the film came out and died in four weeks.” At the BAFTAs, The King of Comedy won Best Original Screenplay and contended for Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor (Jerry Lewis); it also received a Palme d’Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. The London Critics Circle Film Awards presented the movie with the ALFS Award for Film of the Year while the National Society of Film Critics Awards lauded Sandra Bernhard with Best Supporting Actress.

Breaking his streak of films with Robert De Niro as his leading man, Martin Scorsese selected Griffin Dunne (My Girl) to play the main character in After Hours (1985). The dark comedy follows Paul Hackett (Dunne) who experiences a series of misadventures and dangers while making his way home in New York City. The randomness of the events that occur in the movie that also stars Rosanna Arquette (The Whole Nine Yards), Verna Bloom (High Plains Drifter), Terri Garr (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), John Heard (The Pelican Brief), and Linda Fiorentino (The Last Seduction) is inspired by reality. “Violence has always been a pretty scary thing for me, but I’m fascinated by it, especially by the aimlessness of it,” remarked Scorsese. “It’s always erupting when you don’t expect it, particularly in a city like New York. You’re sitting in a restaurant, eating and suddenly a car crashes through the window and you’re dead. That’s happened several times in New York.” Made on a budget of $4.5 million, After Hours earned $11 million domestically. Rosanna Arquette was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs and Griffin Dunne contended for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes. The Independent Spirit Awards lauded After Hours with Best Director and Best Feature as well as nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Female Lead (Arquette), and Best Screenplay. Success was found at the Cannes Film Festival where Martin Scorsese won Best Director and the film competed for the Palme d’Or. Complicating matters was a plagiarism lawsuit filed by radio artist Joe Frank who claimed portions of his NPR Playhouse monologue were used in the plot and dialogue of the movie. Never given official credit, Frank received a lucrative financial settlement.

Collaborating with colleague Steven Spielberg (War Horse), Martin Scorsese produced an episode of the NBC anthology television series Amazing Stories called Mirror, Mirror (1986). Sam Waterston (The Killing Fields) portrays an arrogant horror novelist who is pursued by a misshapen face which he can only see when looking at reflective surfaces. Performing with Waterston are Helen Shaver (Desert Hearts), Dick Cavett (Frequency), Tim Robbins (Bull Durham), Harry Northup (Bad Girls), Dana Gladstone (The Presidio) and Valerie Grear (Girls Just Want to Have Fun).

Attempting to try something creatively different, Martin Scorsese elected to helm a cinematic project featuring a Hollywood legend and a box office star.

Continue to part three.

For more on the director be sure to visit the Martin Scorsese Fansite and ScorseseFilms.com, along with the BFI documentary A Personal Journey with Scorsese Through American Movies.

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Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.