Best Martin Scorsese movie

I've seen more acknowledgment of The King of Comedy's power in recent years.

So Marty and Souleymane Cisse had a sitdown at the Tribeca fest:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2011/04/scorseseciss%C3%A9-apres.html

still haven't figured out what foreign dialect Pesci uses in Casino.

You're not filling in any holes here, so I'm assuming you're basing this on Jimmy Two Times or Pesci's character wondering aloud why a Jew broad is prejudice against Italians.

just EVERYTHING about it. the whole, "i used to play stickball in the streets with my friends, what a great gang they were. also we killed people and made marinara sauce in prison". again, i just think it's part of martin scorcese's j.o. fantasies about organized crime...which for me do not necessarily translate into good film. i guess i prefer it when he focuses on weird paul schrader-ish loners or the rupert pipkins of the world.

i feel like the soundtrack is oppressive at least in part b/c it paved the way for people to do movies in which you don't have to communicate things through characters or dialogue, but instead just insert pop song here. which is fine, i mean i love vh1 specials, too, but...

i don't have a problem w/deniro's performance in goodfellas. i think he was great. but i just think he burned out really quickly. or something. and i probably shouldn't harsh as much on the film; more its fans...

del (and Pauline Kael) rong.

if you think Goodfellas is self-parody, what would you call Casino?

i watched Casino recently and enjoyed it. tbh maybe i just don't like ray liotta.

i feel like the soundtrack is oppressive at least in part b/c it paved the way for people to do movies in which you don't have to communicate things through characters or dialogue, but instead just insert pop song here. which is fine, i mean i love vh1 specials, too, but...

I think Goodfellas is overrated, but this feels a bit ironic if you dug Casino, where voice-over narration communicates everything for like the first hour.

del, whatcha think of the first Godfather? talk about yr collective American JO fantasy about the mob (not entirely Coppola's doing).

I mean, GF is told at least on the surface in Henry Hill's voice, tho it's subverted by the time he becomes a coke freak. You hafta show what he found irresistible about the lifestyle.

still haven't figured out what foreign dialect Pesci uses in Casino.

― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, May 2, 2011 1:40 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha, i thought it was a game attempt. at least he tried, its not like nypd blue where brooklyn cop andy sipowicz constantly sounds like a chicago hot dog vendor

The movie requires Henry Hill's passivity to communicate the allure of his world, but there's this unresolved tension between the energy of Liotta's performance, the voice-over, and the character as written.

I think we're all forgetting this.

http://rlv.zcache.com/goodfellas_painting_poster-p228333512157444550tdcp_400.jpg

del looking one way, thread lookin the other

lol otm

On a completely different topic, I think Scorsese's doc on George Harrison is due out this fall.

too bad the title No Direction Home is already taken.

The movie requires Henry Hill's passivity to communicate the allure of his world, but there's this unresolved tension between the energy of Liotta's performance, the voice-over, and the character as written.

oh, come on, now.

I'm kinda agreeing with you, fool.

del, whatcha think of the first Godfather? talk about yr collective American JO fantasy about the mob (not entirely Coppola's doing).

i've never seen the godfather.

I mean, GF is told at least on the surface in Henry Hill's voice, tho it's subverted by the time he becomes a coke freak. You hafta show what he found irresistible about the lifestyle.

if you spend a million dollars on making a movie about the mob, or anything else, then you are glamorizing it.

If you spent five years writing a novel about a pair of serial killers, then you are glamorizing them.

"Glamorize" and "demonize" are two of the worst words in the language, btw -- meaningless.

well... actually, yeah.

I feel like the choice of music and the way it's used in Mean Streets must be something people either love or hate. I fall firmly in the former camp on this one. So perfect. Am thinking of the opening to Be my Baby and then later Jumping Jack Flash in particular.

agreed, altho i never wanna meet someone who hates the music in mean streets (or, indeed, any scorcese).

watching his persona journey thru movies over a couple of nights at the moment. i would like to go to the pictures with martin scorcese.

I haven't seen Mean Streets for about 15 years, but Harvey Keitel staggering around drunk to Rubber Biscuit is the one that sticks in my mind.

Yeah, of course. I watched it last night and remembered a conversation where a friend said it was too "distracting". I think he was probably clearly just wrong in this case.

it's probably been mentioned that he didn't pay in advance for the rights to any of the Mean Streets music! wtf

I hate most of the music in The Departed (Dropkick Murphys ftw).

it's probably been mentioned that he didn't pay in advance for the rights to any of the Mean Streets music! wtf

I saw him quoted as saying that it took several years to pay off all the licences (cough Allen Klein cough). Scorsese went on to say that some of the songs were mastered for the s/t directly off original singles from his collection.

about to watch new york new york for the first time

do i go short or long version?

actually eff this. two and half hours? some of us have jobs. not me, admittedly.

if you've got this out on lovefilm, could you send it back promptly? because its been on my list forever.

I watched the long version; still didn't care for it.

if you've got this out on lovefilm, could you send it back promptly? because its been on my list forever.

― his name was rony. rony from my cage. (stevie), Monday, June 27, 2011 11:38 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

im sure i replied to this, weird...

fraid it might not be till friday, sry bro

:(

does this mean you decided to watch the long version?

im afraid i didn't watch it at all. i watched the last adam curtis ep. i'd had a long day. i'll keep you posted but i just don't think i can do it today or tomorrow. but you never know.

that's okay its just nice to be in the loop you know

NYNY was the first of his films I ever saw (in a theater, at least). I think it's fascinating, and God knows better than anything he's churned out lately.

also, must watch the long version not only for "Happy Endings" but De Niro and Lionel Stander saying "Huh? What?" to each other for about 90 seconds.

Rankings courtesy Morbs:

http://rupertpupkinspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-favorite-scorsese-films.html

c'mon, that guy has post-Kundun stuff in his top 14, and no Age of Innocence

Thought there might be a separate Casino thread, but apparently not. Just watched it for the first time in a number of years; I saw it a few times in the decade after its release. I've always had very mixed feelings on it; there's much that's good, some greatness, and moments that seem to me like the beginning of a permanent downward slide. The thing that struck me most this time was how good De Niro is. I don't know that it's an especially challenging role, and age-wise he pushes credibility a bit, but I don't think he hits a false note the whole way. There are a lot of good performances--Stone, Rickles, Alan King, the guy who plays Remo, the Vegas sheriff and his lunkhead brother-in-law, etc. Pesci...comes perilously close to self-caricature. He's fun to watch, but next to what he did in Raging Bull and Goodfellas, it's just schtick--he also looks like he still has his David Ferrie makeup on in a couple of scenes. Always disliked the opening, with that bombastic music and less-than-vintage Saul Bass credits, and there's a line in De Niro's introductory voice-over that still makes me wince: "It was like a morality car wash." Music's up and down: love "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," "Love Is Strange," and Jeff Beck's "I Ain't Superstitious."

you left out James Woods in yr list of good performances...

at the time I reaallllly hated Stone's role, so vapid and one-note (I get it, she's a golddigger! sheesh), and her OD scene is ridiculous, but I've kind of softened to it over time. De Niro is really funny overall though, he's great. Agree that this is like 2/3rds of a great movie, but it overreaches at several points.

Stone feeling compelled to give Pesci a blowjob, for ex.

Sharon Stone stole an Oscar nod from Nicole Kidman and that's all there is to it.

last time i saw it i was struck by how there's no breathing room on the soundtrack - the songs just keep coming and coming and coming

I love the wall-to-wall soundtrack in Goodfellas--it's like a throwback to Scorpio Rising--but yeah, again I think, "You've already done this." (On balance, I think there's less music in Casino.) Woods is definitely good and slimy--reptillian. I like Stone a lot. She's super glamorous early on, vulnerable and hysterical towards the end.

But if that was the year of To Die For, that'd be a tough call for me.

I love that Woods is also totally pathetic - fighting with the kid, etc.

The scenes with the kid are priceless. His coddling of Stone is a lot like the creepy sweet talk Sport lays on Iris in Taxi Driver--much creepier there, for obvious reasons.

OK, wtf?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1148205/

Fortunately, it may not happen.

Watched Alice last night on TCM -- Burstyn is great, but I had a huge problem with the script. So much of Alice's motivation is in Tommy's constant whiny bratty "when are we gonna get to Monterey, you promised we'd be in Monterey by my birthday, Monterey Monterey Monterey wah wah wah!" And then at the very end he says "what? Monterey was your deal, not mine!" allowing them to drop anchor. How convenient. Fuck a deus ex machina.