THE 2019
DAVID LEAN LECTURE
DELIVERED BY MARTIN SCORSESE
D EL I V ER ED BY M A R T I N S CO RS ES E
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ScorseseÔs influence on cinema over the past 50 years has been both ubiquitous and boundless
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OVERVIEW
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artin Scorsese is one of the most revered and successful directors of our generation, making more than 30 feature films across an esteemed 50-plus years in the business. With a filmography that boasts such recognised classics as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Departed (2006) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), it’s no surprise that he consistently features in lists of the top directors of all time, among his many other industry accolades. In film, timing often is everything. While Scorsese’s extraordinary talent would no doubt have shone in whatever era he started making films, there’s little doubt that he arrived on the scene during a sea-change in American filmmaking that perfectly suited his style and discourse. The 1970s saw the end of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, with audiences eager for more gritty and realistic films that reflected the disenfranchisement of the times. A relaxation of the established rules on violence, sexuality and language saw young filmmakers taking greater risks with their subject matters and art, leading to the birth of the American New Wave, which included Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin. Scorsese couldn’t have come along at a better time. The born and bred New Yorker was perfectly placed to take advantage of the situation, first making the low budget Mean Streets (1973); then Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), which earned him his first BAFTA nod; followed by the seminal Taxi Driver, which won Scorsese a Palme d’Or. Many other commercial and critical hits followed, which collectively have earned him 12 BAFTA nominations, winning three: Best Film with Irwin Winkler;
D EL I V ER ED BY M A R T I N S CO RS ES E
by Toby Weidmann
Adapted Screenplay, with Nicholas Pileggi; and Director, all in 1991 for Goodfellas. As a director and producer working across mediums (including directing the pop promo to Michael Jackson’s “Bad”), he was also nominated twice at the Television Awards (for Boardwalk Empire and an Arena episode) and once at BAFTA’s Children’s Awards (for the family friendly Hugo, 2011). He won his only Oscar for The Departed, but has been nominated 11 other times. He was also presented with the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Somehow, outside of directing thoughtprovoking, intricate and unforgettable stories, Scorsese also manages to find the time to work on film preservation, setting up (with several other like-minded filmmakers) The Film Foundation in 1990 and The World Cinema Foundation in 2007. These non-profit organisations remain dedicated to preserving, restoring and showcasing works of classic cinema across the world. Scorsese’s influence on cinema over the past 50 years has been both ubiquitous and boundless. And, with the release of The Irishman in 2019, Scorsese continues to push boundaries, not just in storytelling, but also in style, technique, technology and distribution.
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IN HIS OWN WORDS and the Two Cities Films and Powell and ON DAVID LEAN Pressburger, even Gainsborough films. “His images stay with me forever. But what British cinema was a major influence.” makes them memorable isn’t necessarily their beauty. That’s just good photography. It’s the ON WHY HE MAKES FILMS emotion behind those images that’s meant the “I keep in shape, but then there’s the question most to me over the years. It’s the way David of actually trying to make a good movie; Lean can put feeling on film. The way he your body may be in shape, but is your mind? shows a whole landscape of the spirit. For me, that’s the real geography of David Lean country. It’s about protecting the creative spark if it’s still there; and if it is, have you anything of And that’s why, in a David Lean movie, there’s interest to say to anybody?” no such thing as an empty landscape.” ON INSPIRATIONS “The overriding, compelling impulse [came from] the extraordinary powerhouse of three films I saw at once when I was five or six years old. They pervaded everything and they were the Italian neo-realist films Open City, Shoeshine and The Bicycle Thieves. They cast their shadow over me and my family, as Sicilian-Americans. Along with musicals, Westerns, noirs, although they weren’t called noirs back then they were just movies. And all of British cinema: the Ealing Studios, Alexander Korda, (Filippo Del) Giudice
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“I look back now and I say after all these years, ‘I couldn’t make it as a Hollywood moviemaker’. I was almost a thief who got away with making these movies in the margins of the book. Some were more in a marketable range, like The Aviator or The Color of Money... Others are not. I found I could only really get excited about stories that I wanted to tell and they seem to be more internal and personal.” ON THE REWARDS OF EDITING “The beauty of it is when I get into the editing room and combine what [the actors] did on
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the set with my pre-thought-up cuts and camera moves. I’m fascinated by the moving image. It’s like a miracle to me. I’m obsessed with those sprocket holes. Sometimes, in editing, we stop on the little frame and go, ‘Look!’ Perhaps it’s half flash-framed because it’s the end of the tape. Or the expression on the actor’s face is so beautiful we have the frame printed up and we put it on the wall. And then putting music on: the music in Goodfellas or Taxi Driver. I just want to listen to it over and over. Those are the joys, the rewards.” ON THE FUTURE OF CINEM A “I do think, with the advent of digital, there’s good hope that the storytelling impulse will always be there. I don’t know what the technique will be, or what the format will be – whether it’ll be a one-inch screen on your wrist – I don’t know. But young people think differently than the way we thought when we saw films on the big screen. It’s very exciting, and in a sense there’s no more excuses for not being able to take your passion, if you have it, to create something with a visual aesthetic.”
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ON ADVICE TO YOUNG FILMM AKERS “Make your own industry. Recreate movies. Don’t pay attention to the industry, do your own thing. Put it this way, you want your work to be seen, but it doesn’t have to be at the Odeon. That’s all different, that’s another ancient world. The communal experience is always important, but you can make a film on a camera the size of a doorknob and still show it to 1,600 people. It’s still a great communal experience. But it doesn’t mean it has to cost over £100m. It’s all new, you just break it open. Break open the form, don’t just have your tripod and your camera. Whether we like it or not, we all have to deal with a new technology, high definition or digital. Make a new art. Take what’s available and push it.” Sources: American Film Institute: Tribute to David Lean,1990, sourced from theatlantic.com; BAFTA Guru video, 2012 Ð "Martin Scorsese's Advice To Beginners"; bafta.com, 2012 Ð "Academy Fellowship: Martin Scorsese Interview", by Quentin Falk; SBS The
Playlist episode 8 podcast, 2017, interview by Fiona Williams; Playboy, 1991 Ð "The Raging Talent of Martin Scorsese", by David Rensin; IndieWire, 2017 Ð "How Martin Scorsese Will Save Filmmaking from Extinction", by Eric Kohn
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THE KING OF MOVIES One of the greatest living directors, who is still making movies well into this 70s, director-producer-writer Martin Scorsese has a lot to teach us about the art of film. Film writer Rich Matthews puts on his student cap to learn more...
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artin Scorsese can teach you ÒWHEN I'M MAKING A FILM, everything you need to know I'M THE AUDIENCEÓ about cinema. Whether it’s A A febrile web of faith, family, Americana, Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through masculinity, rock‘n’roll and violence, American Movies, deep diving into the heart of intertwined with the cinema of De Sica, Western moviemaking or the abundant words Kurosawa, Rossellini, Ray, Fellini, Bergman, of wisdom scattered in video clips across the Antonioni, Powell and Pressburger, and more, internet, covering every facet of filmmaking, Scorsese’s point of view is manifestly cinematic. from lenses to montage to the importance of A true auteur akin to Hitchcock, Scorsese’s preservation, Scorsese is a one-man film school. cine-literate camera is active, a character with But, fittingly for a discipline centred on the agency. It shows you what he wants you to see, maxim “show, don’t tell”, the best way to the way he wants you to see it. Technique is understand what he knows about cinema is pronounced but wedded to emotional intent. to watch his movies. Top to bottom – mise en scene, montage, performance, framing, movement, music – everything in the frame is an intricate mechanism to channel your attention, challenge your perspective and bring you into someone else’s life. How else do we readily identify with hedonist banker Jordan THELM A SCHOONM AKER ÒMarty was the teacher and I was the student. I knew nothing about editing. Gradually, over time, as I gained more experience, it has become much more of a collaboration... [This] has deepened greatly with time. It consists of a wonderful give and take of ideas, humour and ScorseseÔs tough high standards for his films.Ó [From EE British Academy Film Awards 2019 brochure Fellowship feature]
Thelma Schoonmaker is ScorseseÔs go-to editor, collaborating with him on 22 of his feature films
TA X I D R I V E R (1976 )
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Scorsese continues to evolve his points of view, embracing new tools and modes of distribution that elude many Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013) as he descends into Quaaludes-induced delirium? Or Mob enforcer Henry Hill (Goodfellas, 1990) exploding into cocaine-fuelled paranoia? Or unhinged loner Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver, 1976) preparing to enact bloody fantasies: “Are you talking to me?” Scorsese describes his filmmaking as the act of “forcing [the audience] to see things the way I see them.” We’re just lucky that he sees things in such compelling, challenging and entertaining ways, set to the sound of some of the best music of the last 70 years. ÒTHE IMAGE IN THE MIND'S EYE NEVER FAILS TO EXCITE MEÓ With an already enviable filmic vocabulary – confident using freeze frames, slow-motion, long single-take tracking shots, sublimely controlled zollies – Scorsese continues to evolve his point of view, embracing new
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LEONARDO DICAPRIO ÒThe one thing I donÔt think people understand about Scorsese is how much he believes in the actors he hires and how much he depends on them doing their homework before they show up on the set... HeÔs a master filmmaker and he knows how to navigate the human mind and portray things about the human condition, but he lets the actors really dictate what he puts up on the screen... We would discuss the scenes almost like forensic detectives, going through the details with a fine-tooth comb, and thatÔs one of the most interesting, challenging, scary and fun parts of making his movies because, by the time youÔre on set, youÔre really committed to something.Ó [From Shutter Island production notes]
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has collaborated with Scorsese on five films,which earned him three BAFTA and two Oscar nominations
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tools and modes of distribution that elude many of his contemporaries. Hugo (2011) was a 3D adventure merged with a love letter to one of the fathers of cinema, French fabulist Georges Méliès (played by Sir Ben Kingsley). A giddy nod to one master of innovative techniques through utilising emerging technology himself, Scorsese’s wizardry never undermines the central tale of an orphan living in a 1930s’ Parisian train station. At time of writing, we’re readying ourselves for The Irishman (2019) to drop on Netflix. Even brushing past the much-discussed innovation of ‘de-aging’ digital effects, reuniting Scorsese with past muses Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (plus fellow 1970s’ icon Al Pacino for the first time) as decades-spanning gangsters, it marks one of the biggest filmmakers so far to work within the digital distribution model. It’s a classically personal yet sweeping Scorsese story, told utilising envelope-pushing craft at the frontline of film consumption. His art is a living, changing beast, like film itself.
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SANDY POWELL ÒMartin Scorsese, with a brain like an encyclopaedia, knows a lot about everything, but most importantly for me, he is a director who loves, understands and has a deep interest in clothes, costume and character. He will go to great lengths to give an insight into the characters we are creating and provide reams of visual reference, down to the tiniest details Ð I once watched an entire film he recommended (Les Enfants du paradis [1945]) to look at the angle of a stripe on a shirt collar. Despite his obsessive attention to detail and very clear communication of ideas, Scorsese also gives me total freedom to create and has always been open to suggestion and alternative approaches. He is always inspiring, enthusiastic and encouraging, never more so than when an actor arrives on set in a new costume.Ó Costume designer Sandy Powell and Scorsese have collaborated on seven films to date, starting with Gangs of New York and most recently on The Irishman
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ÒMY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN MOVIES AND RELIGIONÓ Scorsese’s films make us do two things – think and flinch. A reflection of the push-and-pull of Church and Street that exemplified his mid-20th century second-generation SicilianAmerican upbringing in Manhattan’s Little Italy, the dominant backdrop of Scorsese’s most prolific work has been organised crime, predominantly the foot soldier, the working man with a crowbar and a gun. From 1972’s Boxcar Bertha to The Irishman, Scorsese’s signature themes of aggressive masculinity, existential crisis and the consequences of explosive violence are offset by the structures and rivalries of both blood and adopted ‘families’, vying for dominance in his antiheroes’ lives. Outside the ranks of the Made Men, Scorsese’s deconstruction of the scarred American male bleeds onto the streets of his beloved New York City (often a character in and of itself) – Taxi Driver’s Bickle prowling its neon-steeped underbelly; Raging Bull’s (1980) belligerent Jake LaMotta peacocking around the Bronx; Nicolas Cage’s necrotised ambulance driver, Frank, ghosting Manhattan in Bringing Out the Dead (1999).
These preoccupations have exploded into dark comedies (The King of Comedy, 1982; After Hours, 1985), psychological thrillers (Shutter Island, 2010; Cape Fear, 1991) and sweeping biopics (The Aviator, 2004). Even the late 19th century gentry of The Age of Innocence (1993) bristle with repressed emotion, transforming gestures into acts of emotional violence. And all of this is infused with spirituality. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) courted controversy by painting his Catholic Jesus in starkly realistic light (including a dying fantasy of an ‘ordinary life’); Kundun (1997) extolled the beauty and strength of Buddhism through the tribulations of the 14th Dalai Lama; and Silence (2016) showed the price of devotion for 17th century Portuguese missionaries in feudal Japan. Family, religion, ambition – all bring pain for Scorsese. Only film, perhaps, brings catharsis. BOB SHAW ÒMarty has the biggest shooting vocabulary of any director working today, shots heÕs going to dream up, shots that just arenÕt going to occur to anyone else and you have to be prepared and you have to adapt. And you have to know your stuff... MartyÔs the most intellectually curious of any person of any age IÔve ever met. You mention any topic and heÔs interested in it. And he also knows a little something about it. Astonishing.Ó [From The Irishman production notes]
Production designer Bob Shaw has worked with Scorsese on two films, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman, and on the first season of Boardwalk Empire
Quotation sources: The Guardian, 2003 Ð "Are we ever going to make this picture?" by Alex Williams; The New York Review of Books, 2013 Ð "The Persistent Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema" by Martin Scorsese; Interviews for The Last Temptation of Christ, cited in Martin Scorsese: A Journey, 1991, by Mary Pat Kelly; Parade, 2012 Ð "Martin Scorsese on Leonardo DiCaprio: 'We speak the same language'" by Erin Hill
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ÒI'M RE-ENERGIZED BY BEING AROUND PEOPLE WHO MEAN A LOT TO MEÓ Paralleling the recurring theme of family, Scorsese’s offscreen success is shared by trusted collaborators. Onscreen partners are wellknown – De Niro, DiCaprio, Keitel, Pesci – but his offscreen cohorts are unparalleled. Master cutter Thelma Schoonmaker (prolifically from Raging Bull onwards); cinematographers such as Michael Chapman (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), Robert Richardson (Casino, The Aviator) and Michael Ballhaus (The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas); and writers including Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), Jay Cocks (Silence, The Age of Innocence) and Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas, Casino) have played an integral role in Scorsese’s filmography, but all within what are clearly Martin Scorsese pictures. His beats, his themes, his style dominates; as director, he harnesses the gifts of others in slave to his vision. Today, film is most often a vehicle for entertainment, the triumph of commercial craft over film art, but every aspect of Scorsese’s work is driven by his art, by its transformative power, fuelled by thousands of old movies and dozens of past masters. His camera never moves simply to get a cool shot; no shot is ever lit just to look pleasing; no cut is made purely to reduce running time; no character speaks without purpose; no voiceover is just exposition. Kinetic, propulsive, invigorating, thought-provoking and beautiful – a Martin Scorsese picture is pure cinema. There is no better teacher.
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MARTIN SCORSESE FILMOGRAPHY (SEL EC T ) 2019 The Irishman 2016 Silence 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street 2011 Hugo 2010 Shutter Island 2008 Shine a Light 2006 The Departed 2004 The Aviator 2002 Gangs of New York 1999 Bringing Out the Dead 1997 Kundun 1995 Casino 1991 Cape Fear 1990 Goodfellas 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ 1986 The Color of Money 1985 After Hours 1982 The King of Comedy 1980 Raging Bull 1978 The Last Waltz 1977 New York, New York 1976 Taxi Driver 1974 Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore 1974 Italianamerican 1973 Mean Streets 1972 Boxcar Bertha 1967 Who’s That Knocking at My Door
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AWARDS WINS AND NOMINATIONS (SEL EC T ) BA F TA WI NS A N D N O M I N AT I O NS 2014 Director nomination, The Wolf of Wall Street 2012 Feature Film nomination, with Graham King, Tim Headington, Johnny Depp, Hugo (Children’s Awards) 2012 Fellowship 2012 Director nomination, Hugo 2012 Documentary nomination, with Olivia Harrison, Nigel Sinclair, George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2011 International nomination, with Terence Winter, Tim Van Patten, Howard Korder, Boardwalk Empire (Television Awards) 2007 Director nomination, The Departed 2006 Specialist Factual nomination, with Nigel Sinclair, Anthony Wall, Arena: No Direction Home (Television Awards) 2005 Director nomination, The Aviator 2003 Director nomination, Gangs of New York 1993 Britannias honoree 1991 Director win, Goodfellas 1991 Adapted Screenplay win, with Nicholas Pileggi, Goodfellas 1991 Best Film win, with Irwin Winkler, Goodfellas 1984 Director nomination, The King of Comedy 1977 Director nomination, Taxi Driver 1976 Director nomination, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
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OT H ER WI NS 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Carosse d’Or 2012 Golden Globes, Best Director – Motion Picture, Hugo 2012 Primetime Emmys, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012 Primetime Emmys, Outstanding Nonfiction Special, George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012 Primetime Emmys, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Boardwalk Empire (Pilot) 2010 Golden Globes, Cecile B DeMille Award 2007 Golden Globes, Best Director – Motion Picture, The Departed 2007 Academy Awards, Achievement in Directing, The Departed 1986 Cannes Film Festival, Best Director, After Hours 1976 Cannes Film Festival, Palme d’Or, Taxi Driver
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THE DAVID LEAN LECTURE
WITH THANKS
The Academy’s David Lean Lecture is generously funded by The David Lean Foundation. The lecture series serves to continue the legacy of the great director David Lean, one of the founders of the British Film Academy (as it was then known) in 1947 and a continuing inspiration to many through his exceptional body of work.
Martin Scorsese
Previous David Lean Lectures have been given by: 2018 Spike Lee 2017 Yorgos Lanthimos (delivered 2018) 2015 David O Russell 2014 Lone Scherfig 2014 Paul Greengrass 2012 Pedro Almodóvar 2011 Errol Morris 2010 Peter Weir 2009 Atom Egoyan
2008 Lean Centenary Celebration 2007 David Lynch 2006 Oliver Stone 2005 Woody Allen 2004 John Boorman 2003 Ken Loach 2002 Robert Altman 2001 Sydney Pollack
Netflix Tolley Shields Jim Bradshaw Claire Wilson Kathryn Hollis Steve Newman Bethan Dixon WITH SPECIAL THANKS The David Lean Foundation Anthony Reeves The Academy chooses EBB paper, supporting excellence in print. Printed on GalerieArt Satin (200gsm). Supplied and printed by Taylor Bloxham Group. taylorbloxham.co.uk The carbon impact of this paper has been measured and balanced through the World Land Trust, an ecological charity
FOR BAFTA Head of Programmes Mariayah Kaderbhai Director of Learning & New Talent Tim Hunter Learning & New Talent Officer Julia Carruthers Learning & New Talent Officer Alexa Tamsett Learning & New Talent Event Producers Pelumi Akindude, Cassandra Neal Learning & New Talent Assistant Beth Walsh Learning & New Talent Intern Kyle Bird Head of Production Cassandra Hybel Director Lottie Gazzard Production Manager Laura Rees Photography Director Claire Rees Brochure Editor Toby Weidmann Brochure Design Lucy Shephard
Cover and Fellowship portrait: BAFTA/Ian Derry; The Departed: Warner Bros/Kobal/ Shutterstock; Gangs of New York: Miramax/ Dimension Films/Kobal/Shutterstock; Goodfellas: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock; Hugo: Snap Stills/Shutterstock; The Irishman: Netflix; Taxi Driver: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, the Publishers cannot accept liability for errors or omissions. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of BAFTA. © BAFTA 2019
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