Scorsese Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I consider Matt Damon to be one of the greatest actors we have today. The fact that he wasn't nominated for The Departed shows how great he is -- acting shouldn't be so noticeable that we immediately shout, "Oscar!" He's great at drama, comedy, action and he's an enjoyable personality (have you seen his Matthew McConaughey impression?) and an intelligent and candid interviewee -- as is evident in his conversation with a reporter from Australia's Herald-Sun.

In the interview, Damon pretty much delivers the goods on everything he's done for the past few years. He discusses the difficulty of being in between Terry Gilliam and Harvey Weinstein with The Brothers Grimm. He mentions the absurdity of his character in The Good Shepherd ditching out on Angelina Jolie of all women. He says he wants to do a special anniversary DVD for Good Will Hunting. And he also talks about the hot news of the moment: the possibility of a prequel and a sequel to The Departed. Obviously, he knows nothing about the plans, and certainly he wouldn't be involved in anything that comes chronologically after the first film, but he seems at least interested in and supportive of the idea.

While working the Rome Film Festival for his film The Departed, Martin Scorsese has announced a project with festival organizers to re-store and preserve 100 Italian cinema classics. First on the block is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West starring Henry Fonda and Jason Robards. Leone's classic western has been hanging by a thread for a while now; few prints exist and those that do are in terrible condition.

Scorsese has always been one of the loudest supporters of maintaining and preserving classic films. At a festival event, Scorsese spoke to journalists about the project: "You can find that color (deterioration) can happen as quickly as within six years ... Millions of dollars goes into this industry and nobody thought about preserving the film. It's incredible."

So far, Scorsese and the National Film Preservation Foundation have convinced Sony, Warner Bros., and other major studios to start preserving their collections. The Rome Film Festival is promising to help finance the project and do a few films per year (with no word yet on how much this might actually cost). Film restoration is an incredibly expensive and time consuming endeavor but it's worth it when you think of all the amazing films that could have been lost. Being the classic movie junkie that I am, I'm thrilled that someone is leading the charge, and what better person than Martin Scorsese -- a God to film nerds everywhere.

Which movies would you like to see saved for posterity?

Related Scorsese:

Scorsese is Ready for a Break

Getting Up Close and Personal With Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is tired of working in the restrictive studio system and needs a break from big-budget Hollywood -- at least, according this Reuters article. Even though his most recent film, the hugely successful The Departed, is the best-performing film of his career (and financed by a major studio -- Warner Bros.), he feels his creativity is being stifled by the major studios that don't want to take as many risks with their money on edgier and less audience-friendly films.

He does go on to praise Warner Bros. in the article for its support during the production of The Departed and its commitment to allowing him to achieve his creative vision for the film. However, he insists he now wants to focus on smaller-scale, lower-budget films that will give him even more creative control. So, in keeping with that philosophy, what's his next film going to be? Well, according to Scorsese, it most definitely will not be another one of the crime dramas, like Goodfellas, Casino or Mean Streets, that he is so famous for.

Instead, his dream project is the story of two 17th century Portuguese missionaries, adapted from the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo. This is a project, according to Scorsese, that he has wanted to do for 15 years. His desire to turn Endo's novel into a film actually makes sense if you think about it. The main character's struggle in the novel to balance his life as a Japanese man and a Catholic in a country where the percentage of the population who are Catholic is barely 1%, must surely have resonated with the director. He is, after all, a man who makes no secret of his Catholic background and the influence it has on his films; this project should not come as a surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with Scorsese and his work. Besides, in the hands of a master filmmaker like Scorsese, this adaptation could prove to be very interesting indeed.

Of course, even with his desire to make these kinds of "riskier" films outside the studio system, he isn't completely ruling out the possibility of going back to work for the major studios, given the right circumstances. All it would take, according to Scorsese, would be a script like The Departed with the same type of budget and freedom to do things his way. Said Scorsese: "I'd be tempted, because it's like a disease. It's like a drug." I, for one, can't wait to get my next Scorsese fix.

How about you? What's your favorite Scorsese film?

British director Michael Powell, best known for his collaborations with screenwriter Emeric Pressburger, was born 100 years ago this year. Justly celebrated abroad (and by American film dorks like Martin Scorsese, who adores him), he's a sadly overlooked figure in the US.

The films of Powell and Pressburger are almost uniformly awesome, in the old sense of the word. Visually stunning, often slightly strange, they're much deeper and odder than what we're used to today. A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway To Heaven) is still without a US DVD release but is probably their most famous film. It's the tale, basically, of a heroic pilot-ghost (David Niven) who isn't entirely sure that he's dead. Everything about it is supremely dignified, shot in impossibly glorious purples and pinks. When the pilot ascends into the heavens via an endless staircase, it's like watching Frankie Valli Avalon in Grease, except you're somehow compelled to take it seriously.