Director Martin Scorsese Notes:
Conference/Interview:
Scorsese developed an interest in films due to severe childhood asthma. He wasn’t able to keep up physically like the other children so instead he went to movies with his parents. Scorsese’s emotional connection to his parents emerged through film-watching. But why? “I learned to like films mostly,” Scorsese says, “to please my parents.” In terms of siblings, Scorsese mentioned that he had one brother seven years older.
The movie that had the biggest impact on Scorsese during his childhood was East of Eden. It became a “religious obsession” for him and an “experience” he needed to feel again. From this film, Scorsese credits breakout into noticing cameras and actors.
In terms of camera angles, Scorsese talks about a scene from the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. There is a point where a bullet flies by the eyes of one of the characters but is focused in a medium shot. Scorsese says HE visualized the shot in his head as a close up. At this point Scorsese realized he wanted to use images to tell stories; thus, his “obsession” with film began.
Scorsese developed various “collections” of film, anything from pictures, to posters, to 16mm to 35mm. Once you develop these obsessions then you can “make the film.” Scorsese directs future film gurus to “collect and then give back.”
The next question to Scorsese asks about his film “education.” Scorsese talks a lot about his experience in film school. He attended Washington Square College which is within NYU. He was raised a conservative Roman Catholic and those foundations followed him into his career.
Scorsese’s biggest influence at the university was from a man named Hade Menyin (sp). It was his passion for film that rubbed off on Scorsese. However, Scorsese makes special note that you “do not need to go to film school” to be a good at film. He promises that all you need is four hours to learn how to use a camera. Scorsese event admits that he “still doesn’t know anything about lenses.” “The only way to really know about film is to make a film,” he says.
However, there is a danger. You “have to have an obsessive nature” to succeed. “You have to want to make a film more than anything else in life.” He praises those in the business who want a family and something else, but he closes it with “And God bless them.”
In film school, Scorsese made 2 short films that credited him with a $500 scholarship which he put towards his university tuition. His parents admitted that once he received the scholarship they didn’t think their son was “crazy” anymore “because some people actually like his work.” Scorsese even admits he wanted to become a priest at one point but realized he was too “unstable.”
The gears shift again as Scorsese narrows in on his specialty within film: the non-narrative. He learned most of his skill from watching French and Italian films. Hollywood (American) films lean towards a “narrative cinema” – which is a film with a direct story. Scorsese says he did better in creating films without a story. The one time he tried to follow the narrative style though it took him three years to make a movie.
“Any film you do is a marathon,” he says. “It’s like a train coming at you from behind. You can’t stop.” It’s from films that Scorsese says he developed discipline. He was taught to “learn how to make a picture in 24 days.”
The hardest things to film are trains, boats, children and animals because they create the most problems. Scorsese advises to “do the hardest parts first.”
Then a clip from his film Mean Streets plays.
Q: How did you choose the actors?
Scorsese says that Harvey responded to an ad in a magazine in 1965. Scorsese liked him because of the personal similarities they had but most importantly they shared the same “absurdity in life.”
Scorsese used to the voiceover approach because it created a “broken sense of time and space.” Voiceover was not a popular approach at the time.
He credits storyboards as a “result of his obsessive nature.” He would first draw and then lay out. Below is the list he would following in beginning a film:
1) Need PASSION
2) Use the lens to create MOVEMENT
3) Security Issue – believe that EVERYTHING works and KNOW what you need
Scorsese says he learned a lot about the camera from watching American musicals.
He was his own editor for the film Boxcar Bertha which was no uncommon at the time. Scorsese says that from 1973-1976 it was a time where everyone in film helped everyone else.
Then came a clip from Raging Bull
Q: Why did you chose to film it in black and white?
Scorsese says that main reason because color stock was so overused and the quality faded. He admits that “also there were four other boxing films that year so I wanted to make something different.” A colleage in film reminded him of the quote “sweet smell of success” that year. Also in terms of the coloring he thought all the red of the blood in the film was going to be distracting.
Starting out Scorsese knew nothing of camera placements, sports and children. His family went to fights at Madison Square.
One of Scorsese’s weaknesses though is being a weaker writer. He says he did not even want to do Raging Bull at first much less incorporate any boxing into the movie. However, he was encouraged too. And later when asking a critic of his opinion, the critic says that his least favorite part was the boxing!
Then the subject changed to Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang – specifically sex and violence. (Note the audience suddenly wakes up again at this point!)
Scorsese quotes: “I don’t know how to shoot sex.” Violence was emphasized from his childhood but not sex. “I’m looking forward to shooting sex someday . . . I have some ideas.” (Audience laughs.)
“Violence holds personal, serious ramifications,” he says. With violence Scorsese says he makes the cameras slower and flat, like in The Departed which depicts the tragedy of men and the world.
Scorsese’s view point of The Departed: In The Departed Leo is an informer and he didn’t want to be. Whenever he sits down, he doesn’t know who’s behind him and is always tense. The film was almost Biblical to him: “Angel of Death.” With violence Scorsese says he’s not just showing violence but also the threat of it. “Emotional violence” is also crucial to show.
After Hours clip shown
Scorsese says he was also not interested in evening making King of Comedy.
His film Last Imitations of Christ was canceled because it got to be too big.
After 1983 films changed from what they had been in the 70’s.
Comedy is hard to make. Scorsese aims for the “absurdist humor.”
Scorsese also recounts his visits to Tribeca and cabs. Years ago cabs had no bars inbetween the driver and passenger. Cabbies were “more trusting” then. Once Scorsese had a “fast cab ride” just as in After Hours. He recounts the thrill of it.
Musicians – scores to his movies are done with popular music. Scorsese tries to find a “counterpoint with music and scene.”
The Departed music: Scorsese admits he is behind the time on popular music today. In order to learn he sent people to bars in Boston to get a list from the jukeboxes.
Age of Innocence Clip
Scorsese says the film is a mixture of “refined talk and irony.” He is aiming for a cinema of novels by drawing ties from Moby Dick and Tin Drum. Scorsese read the novel Age of Innocense in 1985, and he made sure to use the language in the novel within the film. He wanted to portray the same detached in the novel on the big screen. The quote Scorsese uses to demonstrate his goal and theme for the film is: “With a chill he knew many things would be decided this way for him.” Scorsese says that others though using direct quotes from the novel would provide the film only with “word imprisonment.” But he insisted otherwise. Scorsese wanted to form an expression of the fatalistic future within the characters. He invoked language through voice over to make a discussion in the film. Scorsese makes an aside that he likes widescreen a lot but doesn’t know how to use it.
The over all development of the film is “like a painting – to make brushstrokes like a work teaming with sensuality.”
Q: Delve further into the relationship between narrative and non-narrative:
Scorsese loves the narrative, but he’s just not interested in making the narrative. Again, he ideas came from films in France, Italy and Japan.
However, Scorsese says he “suffers of trying to get everything in” a movie. That’s where the tension develops for him in directing and he becomes scared.
“There is not one way to make a picture,” he reminds the audience.
In terms of period films he reference Age of Innocence again. He says the film demanded two years worth of research on paintings, food, etc to get it just right. Many of the shots in the film are stills of paintings by Whistler.
Then a clip from Casino plays
Scorsese says he knew nothing about Vegas before the film and arriving on location. A lot of voiceover was used in this film. He was faced to film a world of greed and drugs. The battle of voiceover within the clip “were not even meant to be listened to by a certain point because there was no longer control.”
The music in this film reflects several decades. Deniro’s part is based on Lefty Rosenthal who changed Vegas forever through the Stardust – now gone. Lefty’s only job was to: make the casino pay. Scorsese’s aim with the film was to “make the audience confident and then erupt to catastrophe.”
Clip from Kundun plays
Focus on colors, texture, form and music
When this film was made Scorsese said he made it “because I had to get out of Vegas.”
The narration from this film is in a child’s perception.
Q: Please explain more of your Film Foundation
Scorsese: 90% of all silent films are lost due to decay and mold
50% of all moves from 1950 and before are gone
The key is preservation and it’s a directors job to take on that responsibility today
Film schools now have preservation classes.
Scorsese says, “I learned about other cultures through film.”
