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CAnd let me just say one thing? Thank God for asthma!” Strong opposition spike leeAt the beginning of Apple TV mr scorseseA detailed exploration of the life and work of the cinematic legend martin scorseseThe new five-part series devotes much of its first episode to the filmmaker’s New York upbringing – including his struggle with severe asthma as a young child. This situation forced a young Scorsese to stay at home and watch people through the glass pane of his window, while his parents took him to the cinema as often as possible – seeking a constant supply of more easily breathable air. Or as one discussant puts it: “Marty’s life depended on going to the movies. It was where he could breathe.”
Over the past half century, there have been precious few filmmakers who have had the same impact as the man widely known as “Marty.” from the early classics mean roads (1973), taxi driver (1976) and raging Bull (1980), to late-career sensational films such as silence (2016) and flower moon killer(2023), Scorsese, now 82, has proven himself cinema’s best long-distance runner, an artist of almost peerless longevity. “Honestly, when I started, I didn’t really understand how hard it was,” says Rebecca Miller, director of . mr scorseseHe initially envisioned the documentary as a two-hour film. “Within a year, I was like, ‘I can’t do this,'” she recalls. “It would have been a disservice to him and his actual Shakespearean output. There is a level of creation… so many masterpieces at this level and over such a long period of time, and spanning such a large part of this country’s history.”
There have always been a lot of critical criticisms of Scorsese’s works – that he is a guy who makes movies about gangsters; That he’s a guy who makes movies about menEven among fans, the Scorsese myth follows a rote path: his early flirtation with joining the priesthood; his drug addiction in the 1970s; his symbiotic, decades-long working relationship with Robert De Niro; His subsequent role as a senior spokesperson for Cinema. (“I would also describe him as a film publicist,” comments Miller.) But mr scorsese does a good job of rooting its contradictions – and its failures – among the planks of the established narrative.
In fact, what surprised Miller most while researching the documentary was “how many times.” [Scorsese] He failed,” she says. “Not just in the beginning, but throughout his life, he had failures.” A major setback came early: He had to co-direct an Oscar-winning music documentary woodstockBut was dropped from the project during editing. This caused a breach of reputation boxcar bertha – 1972 exploitation film made by schlock maven Roger Corman. Miller said, “Even later, after creating some masterpieces, Scorsese was left for dead several times.” “And what’s really interesting to me is that she had to redefine herself, and choose herself, every time.”
A lively and detailed segment of the documentary focuses on the 1977 Liza Minnelli-starring period romance New York, New YorkDirected by Scorsese taxi driver A success, it was a notorious misfire of cocaine-fueled excess, and nearly derailed the filmmaker’s career. Miller says, “You see these imaginations that have just run wild, and they’re able to do this. It’s like popcorn that just keeps popping.”
He asks those essential, spiritual questions. he is still looking for
Rebecca Miller
Miller, the daughter of master playwright Arthur Miller, is best known for her fiction films, including the Greta Gerwig-Ethan Hawke drama. maggie’s plan (2015). she came mr scorsese With a loose, pre-existing acquaintanceship with Scorsese – Miller is married to Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in Scorsese’s age of innocence And Gangs of New York(Day-Lewis is one of several names to be interviewed for the documentary, part of a roster that also includes Scorsese himself.) “I knew [Scorsese] “A little socially, so I had a sense of intimacy,” Miller says. I think he chose me partly because he knew I would paint an honest picture.”
She says, her attraction to Scorsese’s work “stems from the duality between his Catholic faith and his fascination with violence. How do these two things go together? Who is this person?” She cites a moment when Scorsese’s father suggests that all his films have “some element of faith” – “this idea of are we evil? Where is the evil? Where is the good? What is Are human being?” These themes may emerge most clearly in religious epics such as last temptation of christ (1988) or bundle (1997), but in a way, is present in all his films taxi driver To casino (1995).
“I think if you’re an honest artist, every single piece of your work will be some kind of self-portrait,” she says. “So as a person of faith, he can’t help but reflect on it in some way. Not in a preachy way, but… he asks those essential, spiritual questions. He’s just on a quest.”
The most interesting part of the documentary focuses on casinoand Scorsese’s working relationship with Sharon Stone. A recurring criticism of Scorsese, particularly in recent years, has been his sidelining of women in his films, an argument that fades under scrutiny: his films have garnered 11 Oscar nominations for their female stars, including Stone, and many of his most memorable characters have been women. (Indeed, while much of his work focuses on men, or male-centered environments, they often serve as immaculate autopsies of masculinity.)
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“Their view of human beings is complex – I think women in films are just as complex as men,” says Miller. “I mean, look [Sharon Stone’s character] in ginger casino…It’s a great, dense portrait of a human being with all his flaws. He really takes the truth as he sees it, you know? And everyone Rooted in their time, their place, and how they came into the world. So essentially, they have a certain point of view.
A few times during our interview, Miller uses the term “Shakespearean” in relation to Scorsese: she compares it to words now common in the English language, which once originated with William Shakespeare. “These words didn’t exist before,” she says; It’s the same thing.” “Marty invented grammar [for cinema]His own grammar. I mean, yes, they had influences, but they synthesized it and really reinvented it. Some grammar is now so ingrained in our aesthetics that we don’t even see it as an effect anymore.
More than two decades ago, Miller was actually on the set of a Scorsese film while he was directing her husband Gangs of New York(Day-Lewis played 19th-century crime boss “Bill the Butcher.”) “It was a big scene [Scorsese] Had to shoot,” she says, “and I remember being so impressed by how nervous he was. He was like a young man who was going to do this impossible task. He was not behaving well, he was not sitting on his laurels. He was on the verge of his own panic.”
She smiles “And I thought, ‘Okay – that’s his secret.’ That’s what he is – alive. He is completely alive. And he’s kept it up for so long.”
‘Mr. Scorsese’ streams on Apple TV from Friday, October 17