November 12, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Influential film director Martin Scorsese caps a memorable year
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, November 12, Graphic News:  His films provoke the strongest of reactions. Whether itÕs an under-age prostitute, or a Jesus who would avoid the final sacrifice, Martin Scorsese gives us a story which dissects the human condition. Born in New York on November 17, 1942, to Italian-Americans Charles and Catherine, his home city has been the setting for many of his most memorable movies, portraying the seedy, brutal side of modern America through troubled lead characters -- usually men -- who are societyÕs misfits. ÒMy whole life has been movies and religion. ThatÕs it. Nothing elseÓ, he is quoted as saying. Now one of the most respected film makers of his age, Marty, as his friends call him, has faced controversy and risked commercial success to forge his own style. His use of slow-motion sequences, black and white film, long tracking shots and freeze frame have become his signature techniques, along with deeply disturbing images of male violence and rage, often to a thumping rock soundtrack from the likes of the Rolling Stones.

None of this would ever have happened had Scorsese followed the path he first chose as a boy. Brought up in a devout, Roman Catholic household, he entered a seminary at the age of 14 with a view to becoming a priest. But his childhood had also been about watching films in his neighbourhood cinemas, when poor health prevented him from joining in sports and games with other children. His passion for film was kindled here and he abandoned the idea of ordination and went, instead, to New York University Film School. One of his early collaborations after graduating was with Harvey Keitel, who became part of a group of actors and directors to whom Scorsese would return many times. Mean Streets (1973) was his first big film, and the beginning of a long association with actor Robert De Niro, who, three years later, portrayed one of cinemaÕs  most notorious characters, Travis Bickle, in Taxi Driver (1976). Scorsese cast the young Jodie Foster as a teenage hooker, with Keitel as her pimp. 

The obsessive loner, wrestling his inner demons, returned spectacularly in Raging Bull (1980), with De Niro giving an Oscar-winning portrayal of boxing champion Jake LaMotta. ScorseseÕs key themes of guilt, punishment and redemption are once again played out with gruelling realism. Raging Bull received huge critical acclaim and is often cited as the greatest film of the 1980s. ScorseseÕs editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, another lifelong colleague, also picked up an Oscar for her work here.

The box office success of Raging Bull was not matched by its follow-up, a satire with De Niro again in the lead role of The King of Comedy (1983). However, The Color of Money (1986), ScorseseÕs sequel to the 1961 movie The Hustler, proved a hit, bringing back the ever-popular Paul Newman to the role he had created 25 years earlier. It was off the back of this that Scorsese made his second bid to bring to the screen a film he had been wanting to make for years: a story of the life of Christ depicting the personal struggle, as the director saw it, of a fully human Jesus called to be the worldÕs long-awaited Messiah. As he anticipated, The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) met strong opposition from religious groups at the time, but, as with other examples of his work, is now looked on -- almost 20 years after the furore -- with some respect for its serious approach to a difficult subject.  

ScorseseÕs reputation was further enhanced throughout the 90s with Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991) and The Age of Innocence (1993). And his story of Howard Hughes, as told in The Aviator (2004) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio -- won no fewer than 11 Oscar nominations. But it was not until this yearÕs ceremony that Scorsese was finally rewarded with a Best Director Academy Award for The Departed (2006), one of four Oscars picked up by the movie, included the coveted Best Picture. By then the American Film Institute had already honoured Scorsese with a Lifetime Achievement Award, declaring that he had left his mark Òon virtually every aspect of the motion pictureÓ. 

In December, he caps a memorable year as one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honours, awarded for major contributions to American culture through the performing arts.
/ENDS