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Mean Streets Taxi Driver Raging Bull The Last Temptation of Christ Kundun The Departed The Aviator Shutter Island these are just a few of the critically acclaimed films startling experimental works and spectacular commercial blockbusters with which Martin Scorsese has forever enriched American cinema Here is a rare and wonderfully insightful chance to experience all of these films and the history and process of moviemaking in general through the words and wit of the master director Richard Schickels canny and intelligent interviews guide us through Scorseses life and work from the child who escaped the realities of Little Italy in the s through movies to the man whose increasingly encyclopedic knowledge of film shaped his ambitions and art Scorsese reveals which films are most autobiographical and which have been forays into unknown territory in content or aesthetics He talks about his lesser-known movies those already considered classics his documentaries and his influences He explains his personal style the close attention he pays to detail and his attraction to genre films And he discusses what being a lifelong student of film has taught him about acting directing music and camerawork among many other topics The result is a vivid immensely enlightening history of modern Hollywood seen through the eyes of one intrepid filmmaker We see audiences expectations tested by what Scorsese was willing to put on the screen in explorations of prostitution institutionalized violence and religion We see the unavoidable frustrations and exhilarating rewards of filming live concerts for The Band and at Woodstock And we see many of the rewarding artistic and personal relationships of Scorseses career including collaborations with Robert De Niro Harvey Keitel Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio An invaluable appreciation of one of our most admired film directors.
About the Author
Richard Schickel is an important American film historian, journalist, author, filmmaker, screenwriter, documentarian, and film and literary critic. Mr. Schickel is featured in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. In this 2009 documentary film he discusses early film critics in the 1960s, and how he and other young critics, rejected the moralizing opposition of Bosley Crowther of The New York Times who had railed against violent movies such as Bonnie and Clyde. In addition to film, Schickel has also critiqued and documented cartoons, particularly Peanuts. Schickel was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. He has also lectured at Yale University and University of Southern California's School of Film and Television.
