Best Martin Scorsese movie

kieth dullea

xxp -- ah sorry, i was watching in bits and bobs and evidently missed some of it

the Protestant wark ethic

"MS sez (of 2001) that "every frame… made you aware that the possibilities of cinematic manipulation are… infinite""

It's maybe the only so far where he doesn't delve into a bit of technical detail to elaborate 🤔

Though he then goes into b-movies and Jacques Tourneur. Places him next to Welles.

Tourneur :)

Two or three of these directors wore eye patches.

It was a thing to allow you to look at the camera better, right? Remember watching the doc with a friend, both going "why did so many directors have eye problems??" and then gradually realising our stupidity.

Oh right lol

Fritz lang at least did suffer an eye injury

Yeah, eyepatch wearers John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Nick Ray and Andre De Toth all lost sight in one eye.

!!!

I think the stuff on "iconoclasts" in the last hour is not that good. But I watched 2.5 hours in pretty much one go and I might've been tired. Just couldn't switch off.

The footage of Cassavetes talking about love was great. That jump from Kubrick to Cassavetes was inspired.

Overall he is missing out on actors. Ofc he is a director and all but it's a bit of a weakness when it comes to talking about Sternberg and Dietrich and emphasizing Sternberg. What does James Mason give across Lolita and Bigger than Life?

Then again he is a director. A strength is giving all that space to the technical and I could've listened to another three hours of all this and more.

I remember trying to get into Minnelli because of this doc and ... yeah, something hokey(??) about his directing that I can't quite jibe with. EXCEPT for "Some Came Running". Love that film.

Have you seen The Band Wagon? Love that one.

Find it heartening seeing xyzzzz__ say all these nice things about Scorsese...Saw both documentaries years ago, don't remember specifics but thought they were very good.

Caveat that it seems of a piece with the whole Scorsese as a critic > Scorsese as a filmmaker school of thought

I would definitely, post-Goodfellas, subscribe to Scorsese the documentarian as being superior to Scorsese the narrative filmmaker, which I guess amounts to the same things.

Adjust the time line to post-Age of Innocence and I'll sign up.

He's got good-to-great movies scattered throughout

I don't know how he still has time to watch so many films. A friend of mine was involved w/making KOTFM and Marty cornered him (twice!) to enthuse about two microbudget indies he'd been involved with years before.

I forgot about Silence, which I do recommend.

Silence is great, I rep for Wolf of Wall St, but the Irishman is a weird comfort food movie for me, just shockingly well-paced for such a long film and quietly structured in such an interesting and seamless way.

*, but the Irishman is my favorite recent of his and etc

Silence is a good argument for saying he's still got great technical chops and it wouldn't hurt him to mix up the subject matter and the casting more often

Wow, I thought Silence was a pious bore with terrible CGI - the Shinoda version is far more interesting.

i prefer the Shinoda version but Scorsese's is fine

Well I don't think there's any doubt he still has the technical chops. It's kind of amazing that he made three films back to back so markedly different in style and subject matter, and in each one he adapted to the stories so well. Not that it's a skill he didn't have before but I think he really found a new level there. Not to say it was his best run of films, not at all, but his versatility is so impressive.

But it's a film about piety! xxpost

I haven't seen Age of Innocence, but my feeling is that Scorsese stiffens up when he gets too close to 'literature' (Last Temptation of Christ another dud in my memory). Wolf of Wall Street is a far more provocative and entertaining film made from far less elevated source material.

still haven't seen the Shinoda adaptation of Silence, will have to get that. Inspired by watching this MS doc I'm re-watching The Bad and the Beautiful tonight.

I first knew about the Scorsese doc thru the coffee table book version, which is pretty nice. I've got the VHS set somewhere too. It was really informative about a number of films I grew to love after, like Force of Evil.

I haven't seen Age of Innocence, but my feeling is that Scorsese stiffens up when he gets too close to 'literature' (Last Temptation of Christ another dud in my memory).

The Age of Innocence isn't stiff -- some of his most eloquent dollies. I have more complaints about his casting, which damn near ruined Last Temptation for me. Michelle Pfeiffer's miscast too in TAOI.

I rep for Wolf of Wall St, but the Irishman is a weird comfort food movie for me, just shockingly well-paced for such a long film and quietly structured in such an interesting and seamless way.

― omar little, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 16:20 (thirty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

*, but the Irishman is my favorite recent of his and etc

― omar little, Wednesday, 24 May 2023 16:21 (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this i think

The Irishman is probably my alltime fave MS tbh.

I'll take The Irishman any day over the fanbase trifecta of GoodFellas, Raging Bull and Wolf of Wall Street.

its definitely still cool to make sure to thb the nose at the projected fanbase anyway

ive never seen raging bull so take that

I bow

it's genuinely unwatchable imo. I've only watched half of it and didn't like anything about it.

It's a film alright.

when I was a kid and just starting to read movie reviews and writing about movies in the music press there was so much hyperbole about Raging Bull

Best Film of the Eighties

I bow

― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.)

You're too short for that gesture.

lads

Best Film of the Eighties
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 24, 2023 12:26 PM

Such a relief to see Do the Right Thing displant Bull for that title

Marty's third or fourth best of the eighties (I do like it but...)

Not sure I've ever done this, but here are the ten I'd go to bat for, in my view:

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Taxi Driver
New York, New York
The King of Comedy
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Age of Innocence
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
The Departed
Shutter Island
The Irishman

The Hague

Shutter Island

Meh

After Hours
Raging Bull
The Aviator
Bringing Out the Dead
Gangs of New York
The Color of Money
Hugo

Sound, Solid

The Last Temptation of Christ
The Departed
Cape Fear
The King of Comedy
The Irishman
New York, New York
The Wolf of Wall Street
Kundun
Who’s That Knocking at My Door

Good to Great

Taxi Driver
The Age of Innocence
Mean Streets
Goodfellas
Silence
Life Lessons
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Casino

i watched raging bull twice because id honestly thought id missed the bull the first time