Scorsese and DiCaprio back together again with 'Killers of the Flower Moon'.

I remember he admired it.

xps I don't know if I'd call hamming it up revealing - it's generally the side he typically shows in public, which to be fair is great. It shows he's been in a much better place long after some harrowing stretches in the '70s and early '80s. But when I wonder "what happened to the guy who studied for priesthood?" you see that in The Silence, and not simply because it deals with priests - his faith hasn't faded with time, and the complications that arise from it are something he still thinks about it, even if he's more at peace with it now.

That personal dimension aside, the film did have a lot to say about religion and its complicated place in politics, especially when it premiered in late 2016, after the evangelical vote sold their souls to a fascist waste dump. Look at the Falun Gong - on the one hand, practicing their faith in China is more or less an act of rebellion against authoritarian rule, and yet they're also publishing the batshit insane, far-right Trump-loving Epoch Times here in the U.S.

Well as the OG Mormons showed you can be both persecuted and a lunatic cult.

As I alluded to in another thread, I've been thinking a lot of Spielberg and Scorsese in tandem, as two virtuoso stylists and synthesists steeped in cinema history, where almost every shot and scene I suspect has its roots in a very specific antecedent. With one or two exceptions, at their worst their films are almost always fascinating outlets for their abilities, passions and references. Even when they don't end up where I want them, I can almost always tell where they are going and what they are going for. I would never pit the directors against one another, mind. More that they set a standard few other directors consistently reach, especially late career, given the standard they each set for themselves so early.

I feel like Scorsese lost it a bit between 1997 to 2011. Trying to ape genres that didnt really suit him like Shutter Island and Gangs of New York. The Departed was enjoyable but far from essential and felt like he was trying too hard to recapture former glories - like a later Stones album or something. I think hes on a roll since Wolf of Wall Street though and is making his best films as good as his recognised classics. Not sure Killers totally landed for me though.

Scorsese has alluded to this many times over the years without delving too much into the topic (for tactful reasons), but he knows he's taken on a fair share of projects that he clearly "had" to do in order to make certain films he already had in development, and there have been times where he realizes "I shouldn't have agreed to direct this" but has to power through and find a way to get the film done as best as he can because it's too late to back out. The Departed is very likely one of those - to me, it never seemed like a conscious attempt to recapture his past work because if you watch Infernal Affairs, it doesn't feel like they were trying to transform the material so much as streamline it and adapt it to a Boston setting with Hollywood movie stars. In other words, very professional in a pretty cold way. I'm not a huge fan of Cape Fear, which was another film that was brought to him (by Spielberg no less), but he seemed to make a bigger effort in transforming that material and making it closer to him. The Wolf of Wall Street was also brought to him - DiCaprio really had to push Scorsese, selling it as "no studio's really making a movie like this anymore with this kind of money - it's a rare opportunity."

The Departed is very different in tone to Infernal Affairs, basically a comedy, of a piece with Wolf of Wall Street. Maybe the "one for them" movies are the ones where he lets loose and has the most fun? To me, that's letting his guard down.

the editing and arrangement of the departed is neither professional nor cold imo

Wolf of Wall Street might be one for the studio but it definitely utilises the style of Goodfellas/Casino.

I think that happens a lot with directors when the stakes feel lower - one of Scorsese's most enjoyable works over the past 20 years is a Hitchcock tribute he did for a commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQrDn1IR0Q

One major element of Wolf of Wall Street is the visual subjectivity, which reflects how these characters have a warped view of life. It's partly what makes the last show so powerful and damning for me but Scorsese also has a lot of fun with that concept via the quaaludes gag.

Also to be clear, when I say "professional," I don't mean phoning it in - he never does that. He's always committed to doing his best, even when he has doubts - it's always going to look like a Scorsese picture. But The Departed does feel a bit cold to me. Funny, entertaining, but not a whole lot underneath the surface.

RE: "I think that happens a lot with directors when the stakes feel lower," I mean relax and have more fun.

* the last shot

if you watch Infernal Affairs, it doesn't feel like they were trying to transform the material so much as streamline it and adapt it to a Boston setting with Hollywood movie stars.

He didn't streamline it tho, he made it baggier — added 50 minutes and a whole layer of (tedious imo) Catholic framing to it.

Yeah, if his last couple films are any indication, his movies can often use a bit more streamlining (imo). And coincidence or no, some of my least favorite of his films are the ones that cost the most. I think I like him best when he's ambitious and scrappy and not self-consciously over-inflated.

ok which one of you replaced his bio with this on letterboxd

https://i.imgur.com/KzFcyv2.png

He didn't streamline it tho, he made it baggier — added 50 minutes and a whole layer of (tedious imo) Catholic framing to it.

Hah, yes he did! It's been too long since I saw either. But the Catholic framing, do you mean the sense of guilt? I remember that being in Infernal Affairs as well though it wasn't rooted in Catholicism. (Regardless, that part never made a strong impression either.)

Yeah, it was there in the original but rooted in personal loyalties. But Scorsese can't help letting Catholicism run all over everything (explicitly or otherwise).

It made logical sense when they transplanted the film to Boston - it's almost become a cliché at this point, so many Boston-based dramas I've seen over the past 20 years work the Catholic presence, whether it's Mystic River or (for obvious reasons) Spotlight.

I don't mind it. I like when artists' religion and politics bleed all over the place.

I mean, why else watch Scorsese? If I want amoral gangster shit I can watch a Warner Bros pic or Brian De Palma.

Very true. Honestly, it's hard to imagine his work without it, but if you somehow wrote that out of the scripts for, say, Mean Streets or Raging Bull, I don't think he'd ever make those films and I'm not sure there would be any real merit to them. Jake LaMotta truly does become nothing more than a cockroach, which is what the reluctant execs at UA initially believed when they were pitched the film.

Actually, LaMotta is a cockroach. The Age of Innocence, Silence, Killers of the Flower Moon >>>>>> Raging Bull.

LOL, we'll have to disagree, but I always thought that was Scorsese's best film because of what he finds in that story.

And also to add what I posted before, I say that as an agnostic - what makes Scorsese (or Leo McCarey or Paul Schrader among others for that matter) so compelling is a lot of what they explore through their faith is universal. The struggles their characters go through feel very honest, something anyone can recognize or experience.

Sure, the "Catholic stuff" is part of what makes his great stuff great. But in what should have been a trifle like The Departed, to me it felt like padding, like he had to find a way to make the story feel important enough for him or something.

(I don't like The Departed anyway, if it's not clear. It cracks me up that it was his Oscar film.)

Yeah, far from my favorite, but it was such a big success that it made Hugo possible, which again is one of my favorites from recent years. I think he said it allowed him to pass on some projects he would've considered before as well.

Hugo is the only Scorsese I havent watched!

I watched Hugo. It felt like Scorsese wanted very badly to make a magical kid's movie tapping into our sense of innocent wonder and he just didn't have the chops for it. It's way too heavy to get airborne.

Innocent wonder is like a Spielberg fantasy, I never got the impression Hugo was interested in those sort of illusions. The heart of it is about a very bitter and broken man, and the war played a huge role in that. It's still uplifting to me because of the way they find their way out of despair. I don't doubt that's heavy, but that's pretty much why it left a lasting impression.

Nice New Yorker interview with LG

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/lily-gladstone-is-holding-the-door-open?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_020424&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5be9da642ddf9c72dc27c25d&cndid=29476922&hasha=f0ef51a738774f8c6d037c5c6beb7573&hashb=7cfed5b1cbcbc6a71fea3c2fc2bc754ee2661f52&hashc=fdd5c8d249d863be98861f55628588b242a4ca01384346986428715bbfdd44db&esrc=CDS_OP

Lily Gladstone honored by the Blackfeet tribe in Montana:

Today the Blackfeet Nation celebrated Lily Gladstone Day. Lily made history as the first Indigenous person to be nominated for an Academy Award and to win a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Her achievements are a beacon… pic.twitter.com/fwJCqH2U76

— Ryan Busse (@ryandbusse) March 26, 2024

The poster, Ryan Busse, is running for governor against Greg "human garbage" Gianforte this year.