by
Julien Faddoul
Mean Streets (1973) ****
A small-time hood must choose between love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
Impeccable, sordid melodrama with an almost matchless eye for realistic detail and natural performance, despite its low budget. The first film in which Scorsese announced himself as a major artist and discovered the subject matter that has served him so well.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin
ph – Kent Wakeford
ed – Sid Levin
p – Jonathan T. Taplin
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) ***
A widow sets off with her young son from New Mexico to California in the hopes of a singing career.
Surprisingly old-fashioned in its themes, this is a superb and endearing slice of Americana of the times, with excellent writing and performances.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Robert Getchell
ph – Kent L. Wakeford
pd – Toby Carr Rafelson
ed – Marcia Lucas
p – Audrey Maas, David Susskind
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Alfred Lutter, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Green Bush, Diane Ladd, Harvey Kietel, Lelia Goldoni, Jodie Foster
Taxi Driver (1976) ****
A lonely Vietnam veteran becomes a New York City taxi driver and allows the violence and squalor around him to explode in his mind.
A cinematic opus that towers above all others and the epitome of the sordid realism of the 1970s. This is an unlovely, unsettling, brilliant film that haunts the mind and paints a most vivid picture of hell on earth. Calling upon themes previously examined by John Ford and Robert Bresson, Scorsese creates a first-person character study that is so razor-sharp that it truly petrifies, concentrating on the disintegration of its title character, presenting the drama from his point of view. De Niro’s disconcerting, unpredictable performance ranks among the greatest ever captured on film.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Paul Schrader
ph – Michael Chapman
ad – Charles Rosen
m – Bernard Herrmann
ed – Marcia Lucas
cos – Ruth Morley
p – Michael Phillips, Julia Phillips
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, Harry Northup
New York, New York (1977) **
An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.
A gutsy, and ultimately rather exhausting experiment. An old-fashioned style movie musical on the big band era with what seems to be an intentionally disaffecting series of incidental aesthetic digressions. These include artificial sets, cluttered sound design and protracted scenes of conversation that were clearly improvised; centred around two abrasive, wilfully unlikable main characters. Only about half of it works (maybe even less) but there’s scarcely another film like it.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Earl Mac Rauch, Mardik Martin
ph – Laszlo Kovacs
pd – Boris Leven
m – John Kander
ly – Fred Ebb
ed – B. Lovitt, David Ramirez, Tom Rolf
cos – Theadora Van Runkle
p – Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro, Lionel Stander, Barry Primus, Dick Miller, Mary Kay Place, Shera Danese, Frank Sivero, Don Calfa, Jack Haley
Raging Bull (1980) ****
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
A breathtaking ballet: Brutal, majestic, powerfully made ringside melodrama/biopic focusing on the tortures of senseless jealousy and repugnant masculinity. Filled to the brim with glorious moments and bits of technique; it exhibits its director and star at the height of their powers.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Mardik Martin, Paul Schrader (Based on the Book by Jake La Motta, Joseph Carter, Peter Savage)
ph – Michael Chapman
pd – Gene Rudolf
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – John Boxer, Richard Bruno
p – Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, Mario Gallo
The King of Comedy (1983) ****
Obsessed with becoming a chat show host, an aspiring comedian kidnaps his idol and ransoms him for a spot on the show.
Deft, staggeringly uncomfortable comedy that plays, with each passing year, ever more acutely as a depiction of the delusional obsession of celebrity. There is a singularly vivid placidness to both the direction and the performances. Remarkably (or perhaps not) the general permissiveness of the culture has caught up with it, and now, in retrospect, nothing about the film feels very funny at all.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Paul D. Zimmerman
ph – Fred Schuler
pd – Boris Leven
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Richard Bruno
p – Arnon Milchan
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard, Shelley Hack, Kim Chan
After Hours (1985) ***
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho whom he met that evening at a coffee shop.
A black comedy that is Kafkaesque in narrative and Keatonesque in method. This is really no more than an expert exercise in the joyous deconstruction of cinematic grammar, suffused with malaise; Dunne is magnificent as the narrative’s central pawn.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Joseph Minion
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Jeffrey Townsend
m – Howard Shore
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Rita Ryack
p – Robert F. Colesberry, Griffin Dunne, Amy Robinson
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, Cheech Marin, Catherine O'Hara, Will Patton, Robert Plunket, Bronson Pinchot
The Color of Money (1986) **
Twenty-five years later, the great pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson teaches an up-and-coming kid his tricks.
Thoroughly enjoyable continuation from The Hustler (1961), further chronicling the adventures of Fast Eddie Felson. But there’s something slack about the storytelling here, which is stubbornly annexed by the Hollywood conventions of the 1980s, including the old pro vs. the cocky youngster.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Richard Price (Based on the Novel by Walter Tevis)
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Boris Leven
m – Robbie Robertson
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Richard Bruno
p – Irving Axelrad, Barbara De Fina
Cast: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, John Turturro, Bill Cobbs, Forest Whitaker
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) **
On the Cross, Jesus Christ dreams of escaping his destiny and living his life as an ordinary man.
Too wordy, too long and too preoccupied with eclipsing the Kazantzakis novel on which it’s based; this is a beautifully shot, well-acted requiem with certain sequences in its director’s best manner. Hugely controversial at the time of its release because of blasphemous dramaturgy, ensuring its failure at the box-office. Make of it what you will, but this is without question Scorsese’s most intensely personal film and remains essential viewing.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Paul Schrader (Based on the Novel by Nikos Kazantzakis)
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – John Beard
m – Peter Gabriel
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Jean-Pierre Delifer
p – Barbara De Fina
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, Andre Gregory, Verna Bloom, Irvin Kershner
Goodfellas (1990) ****
Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian boy who grew up to become a gangster.
Brilliant, violent, unsparing delineation of this specific criminal sub-culture and the corruption of the spirit it entails, with unrelenting scenes of emotional give-and-take that pulsate with the threat of bloodshed. It is so masterfully shot, edited, written and performed that the succeeding cinematic culture has been appropriating it ever since. In a word: Astonishing.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese (Based on the Book by Nicholas Pileggi)
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Kristi Zea
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Richard Bruno
p – Irwin Winkler
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Sivero, Tony Darrow, Mike Starr, Frank Vincent, Chuck Low
Cape Fear (1991) **
A psychotic ex-convict returns to threaten the family of the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended on the charge of rape.
Gruesome, pulpy remake of the 1962 film of the same name, heightened to a sensational degree. Superlative visual flourishes, as well as the performances, make up for the generally mediocre script.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Wesley Strick (Based on the Screenplay by James R. Webb)
ph – Freddie Francis
pd – Henry Bumstead
m – Elmer Bernstein (and Bernard Herrrmann)
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Rita Ryack
p – Barbara De Fina
Cast: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Jon Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas, Fred Dalton Thompson
The Age of Innocence (1993) **
In New York in the 1870s, a wealthy and conventional lawyer becomes smitten with his wife’s cousin, a woman of dubious reputation.
A deft study of a repressed world, conveying in sumptuous cinematic language the societal analyses of its source material. The same cannot be said for the drama, which is hindered by an over-reliance on regal voice over and muted performances. On the whole, Wharton’s is the superior work.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese (Based on the Novel by Edith Wharton)
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Dante Ferretti
m – Elmer Bernstein
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Gabriella Pescucci
p – Barbara De Fina
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Geraldine Chaplin, Jonathan Pryce, Richard E. Grant, Alec McCowen, Mary Beth Hurt, Stuart Wilson, Miriam Margolyes, Siân Phillips, Michael Gough, Alexis Smith
Casino (1995) ***
A mafia enforcer and a casino executive, compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast living and fast loving socialite.
An acute, witty depiction of the history and mechanics of a town built on greed, and the inescapable corruption and dehumanization of its inhabitants. The exhilarating first half plays like a documentary, before composing itself into a tragic drama, focusing on individuals as flawed as the system they operate. It’s long, but remains fascinating throughout.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese (Based on the Book by Nicholas Pileggi)
ph – Robert Richardson
pd – Dante Ferretti
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Rita Ryack
p – Barbara De Fina
Cast: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollak, Pasquale Cajano, LQ Jones, Dick Smothers, Frank Vincent, Richard Riehle
Kundun (1997) **
Biopic of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, from his discovery as a young boy to his exile from Tibet after the Chinese invasion.
An intellectually flabby arrangement, with splendid mise-en-scène and an almost entirely non-professional cast; we are only ever permitted to ascertain the icon, never the man, with Scorsese focusing on a child’s eye view of the events, and thus no clear political discourse is provided. Despite this, it remains generally absorbing.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Melissa Mathison
ph – Roger Deakins
pd/cos – Dante Ferretti
m – Philip Glass
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
p – Barbara De Fina
Cast: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Tencho Gyalpo, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar, Gyurme Tethong, Robert Lin
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) ***
A New York City EMS driver careens toward a breakdown due to the unremitting tragedies of his night shift.
Both Scorsese and Schrader tread familiar territory here: a hellish city of low-life predators and hapless victims, an urban nightmare of dim alleys and garishly lit streets. The perspective is different though, having shifted to the compassionate hands on-call, and all the unbalanced martyrdom they may possess. Sadness and despair, tempered with humanity.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Paul Schrader (Based on the Novel by Joe Connelly)
ph – Robert Richardson
pd – Dante Ferretti
m – Elmer Bernstein
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Rita Ryack
p – Barbara De Fina, Scott Rudin
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, Marc Anthony, Mary Beth Hurt, Cliff Curtis, Cynthia Roman, Sonja Sohn, Aida Turturro
Gangs of New York (2002) **
In the mid 1800s, two gangs – one made up of New Yorkers, the other of Irish immigrants – meet in violent battles to control the poor Manhattan district in which they live.
Scorsese’s most ambitious film: A sprawling, epic account of the making of modern-day New York and its influence on American democracy, meticulously detailed and exhibited. It suffers from two crucial problems: 1) a tired script with an adherence to the conventional devices of revenge and romance, and 2) a weak central performance from DiCaprio, who is overshadowed by a roistering Day-Lewis.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Jay Cocks, Steve Zallian, Kenneth Lonergan
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Dante Ferretti
m – Howard Shore
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Alberto Grimaldi, Harvey Weinstein
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Lewis, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan
The Aviator (2004) ***
Biopic of Howard Hughes, who took Hollywood and aviation by storm.
Engrossing, witty, detailed account of a complex man – one that the director himself no doubt identifies with, for both have a history of sickness and possess a perfectionist’s temperament – that focuses on his early years of success and then, much like the man himself, seems to cinematically spin out-of-control in a manner that is never less than fascinating.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – John Logan
ph – Robert Richardson
pd – Dante Ferretti
m – Howard Shore
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Michael Mann, Graham King
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Ian Holm, Jude Law, Kelli Garner, Danny Huston, Brent Spiner, Willem Dafoe, Gwen Stefani, Adam Scott, Matt Ross, Frances Conroy
The Departed (2006) ***
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
A complex and electrifying crime thriller, based on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs (2002). Directed with nonstop momentum and ferocious cross-cutting, Scorsese progressively leaves out information, giving the audience “2 + 2” and allowing them to work out “4” on their own, permitting the film’s themes of guilt and identity to be unhampered by the expected contrivances of the plot. The cast is a dream.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – William Monahan (Based on the Screenplay by Alan Mak, Felix Chong)
ph – Michael Ballhaus
pd – Kristi Zea
m – Howard Shore
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Graham King, Brad Grey, Brad Pitt
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Corrigan, James Badge Dale, David O'Hara
Shutter Island (2010) *
In 1954, a US Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderer who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.
Certainly evocative and aesthetically expressionistic thriller that cannot compensate for such a banal script. Visually interesting to an intellectual degree, but this is the only Scorsese film that I just cannot grasp on any emotional level.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Laeta Kalogridis (Based on the Novel by Dennis Lehane)
ph – Robert Richardson
pd – Dante Ferretti
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Bradley J. Fischer, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer, Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas, Robin Bartlett
Hugo (2011) *
In 1931 Paris, an orphan living in the walls of a train station gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Sort of the inverse of Shutter Island (2010); this is all heart and no head. Lusciously art directed by Ferretti, but both the staging and editing are fickle, frustratingly clinging to the traditions of syrupy digital family films. The logic behind this is to embolden its self-congratulatory themes regarding the “wonder of the cinema” (the magic of which only really compels during the Méliès Studio section). For my money, it is Scorsese’s weakest film to date.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – John Logan (Based on the Novel by Brian Selznick)
ph – Robert Richardson
pd – Dante Ferretti
m – Howard Shore
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Johnny Depp, Tim Headington, Graham King, Martin Scorsese
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law, Kevin Eldon
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) ***
Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
A film that is out to draw blood. You can read my full review of this behemoth, written at the time of its release.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Terence Winter (Based on the Book by Jordan Belfort)
ph – Rodrigo Prieto
pd – Bob Shaw
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
cos – Sandy Powell
p – Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Joey McFarland, Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, Kenneth Choi, PJ Byrne, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Jon Favreau, Cristin Milioti, Joanna Lumley, Jake Hoffman
Silence (2016) ***
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
My favourite of Scorsese’s three spiritual films and, in some ways, his most fiercely controlled. Dramatically, it may feel sluggish in certain parts. But Scorsese’s mission is one of inquiry rather than sermon and his assumption of Mizoguchi-like rhythms and blatant untimeliness beget riveting cinema. Although one wishes he were more critical of the European missionaries, this is a work impossible to dismiss.
d – Martin Scorsese
w – Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese (Based on the Novel by Shûsaku Endô)
ph – Rodrigo Prieto
pd/cos – Dante Ferretti
ed – Thelma Schoonmaker
p – Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Barbara De Fina, Randall Emmett, Irwin Winkler, Gaston Pavlovich, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Martin Scorsese
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds, Liam Neeson, Issei Ogata, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yoshi Oida, Yosuke Kubozuka, Nana Komatsu, Ryô Kase
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