Scorsese

Last week Martin Scorsese was presented with the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille award by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The award is given for outstanding contribution to the entertainment field and is presented at the annual Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood, CA. Previous recipients include Alfred Hitchcock, Warren Beatty, Anthony Hopkins and Steven Spielberg (which Scorsese actually presented) to name a few and it has been a while since there has been a more worthy recipient.
Since his first feature film Who’s That Knocking At My Door in 1967 up to his most recent Shutter Island (out later this year), Scorsese has been one of the most respected and successful filmmakers working in America. He is one of a few directors working today who still manage to create films as solid pieces of art while never losing an ounce of entertainment value. His catalogue of films is nothing less than astonishing featuring titles such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Age of Innocence, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and The Departed, just to name a couple. And to this day, the release of a new Martin Scorsese picture is still an event in the circles of cinema lovers.
There is a brutal honesty in the work of Scorsese. Although his films are always highly entertaining and skillfully put together, they are not always easy to watch. Whether it be scenes between family, or a gruesome piece of violence, Scorsese never backs down. What needs to be said will be said and what needs to be done will be done. Having gone through the business of getting films made for decades now, Scorsese has seen both the beauty and brutality of the industry. He will tell you as much as anyone just starting out, that getting films made is certainly not easy. And most times, no matter what any director will tell you, sacrifices have to be made. However, Scorsese just might be the exception. Where others may have been forced to scrap or cancel scenes, this director was not going to let anything tamper with his art. A now infamous story from the set of Taxi Driver (1976) comes to mind. It is the middle of the night in downtown New York and the crew is getting ready to shoot a pivotal scene where Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle has an uneasy encounter with a customer in the backseat of his cab. Parked outside an apartment building they are going to have a conversation about what goes on behind those windows. It is crucial to Bickle’s view on the human race and the filth that he feels walks the streets of his city. But time is of the essence and the sun will soon be rising, so let’s get going. There is just one problem. The actor playing the customer is missing. Or rather, he never showed up. The crew wants to go home and the producers say they will just have to cut the whole scene from the film. But that is not an option for the director. This scene is key for the entire film he says, and he is not looking to make any compromises. Determined to his vision of what the film needs to be, Scorsese sees no other option than to slip on the actors costume and climb into the backseat of the taxi. Roll the cameras and the director is now speaking some of the most incredible dialogue in the entire film. If you didn’t know Scorsese you would not know that this wasn’t a professional actor, but a director who would not back down and settle for anything less than what was in the story. And looking at it now, it is one of the stand-out performances in a film that had more than its share of challenges and complications. Read Geoffrey Macnab's brilliant The Making of Taxi Driver to get an idea.
Another great example of Scorsese’s loyalty to story and performance can be found in Casino (1995). In a scene between husband and wife Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone, he does something that would be considered “unthinkable” for any other filmmaker. He allows the audience to see a mistake.
The scene is very emotional and Stone is lying down on the bed crying with De Niro talking to her from behind. The camera is very close on the actors and the intensity is high. This is a difficult scene to get through, in particular for Stone so Scorsese wants to be intimate and make sure he catches everything. The scene plays out well and it is very powerful stuff. The actors are really into it and Scorsese is happy to get what he hoped for and more. But then suddenly, the camera bumps into the side of the bed, dropping down several inches, putting the actors out of frame, before recovering and getting back into shot. Any other director would immediately stop and yell out “Cut!” so loud the camera operator would without a doubt start soiling himself. But Scorsese lets it roll and refuses to go for another take when the scene is done. He got exactly what he wanted in that one. The actors where phenomenal and the emotion was real. That is what was important. There was no way Scorsese was going to sacrifice the genuine emotion of the story and his characters for a mere technical slip. That is another testament to the man’s pure desire for art and storytelling.

Martin Scorsese remains one of the finest filmmakers around and a true inspiration for any young director who wants to establish himself in the industry. With his unquestionable abilities as a filmmaker and his true intentions as an artist he is a force like no other working behind the camera.

Here is the montage that was shown at the Golden Globe ceremony, when receiving the Cecil B. DeMille award for his outstanding work. If this doesn’t get under your skin, you have to ask yourself if you really do like movies.