He was born in New York on November 17, 1942. His family bought their first TV set in 1948. Perhaps this fact brought out little Martin’s natural talent for telling interesting stories. After an unsuccessful episode with a youth seminar, he enrolled at NYU Washington Square College. He chose them because there were directing classes there. While studying, he made several short films, but his first “feature film” was Who’s Knocking on My Door? from 1967. His films were influenced by the “street” experiences, permeated by his own sensitivity and, of course, the cinematography of the time. He mentioned Ash and Diamond as one of his favorite films .
He is known for many masterpieces, just to name a few: Streets of Poverty, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, After Hours, The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, New York New York, Age of Innocence, Cape of Fear, Casino, Gangs of New York, Boys out of gang, Infiltration.
In 2007, Scorsese finally received the coveted Oscar for the last film. With a total of 9 nominations for this award, he is the most nominated director alive.
He also applied his hand to such works as Hugo and his invention , or Fish from the gang (he voiced as Pufferfish).
He collaborated with the most prominent actors, incl. with Robert de Niro, Paul Newman, Willem Dafoe, Liza Minelli, Isabella Rossellini, Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leonardo DiCaprio … It could be exchanged for a long time. His films are regularly featured on the lists of the greatest titles of all time, and he is considered one of the greatest directors. He also holds an honorary doctorate from the Polish National Film School in Łódź.
The director founded the World Cinema Project foundation, which aims to preserve posterity and present films from distant corners of the world. So far, the foundation has presented two publications with over a dozen pictures. The second, similar project focuses on African works.
He has been married five times, to Laraine Marie Brennan, Julia Cameron, Isabella Rossellini, Barbara De Fina, Helen Schermerhorn Morris. She has three children.
The most interesting of the classic film genres are my native ones: a western that was born on the frontier, a gangster movie that was made in East Coast cities, and a musical that was born on Broadway. They resemble jazz: they allowed for endless, more and more complex, sometimes perverse variations. When the masters played these variations, they reflected the changing times; have given you a fascinating insight into American culture and the American psyche.
What advice does Scorsese have for young creators?
Your job is to get the audience interested in your obsessions.
Martin Scorsese is a master at telling interesting stories with discrete elements of his own life. What to wish for the Master? He has probably achieved everything. So let us wish that we can admire his talent more than once again in new excellent films.
Finally, a riddle. Scorsese refused to direct the famous 2019 movie that later won an Oscar for Best Actor? Do you know what this movie is?
