Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the fifth of a five part feature… read parts one, two, three and four.
“I didn’t think of it as Hong Kong. I reacted to what Bill Monahan put together in the script; I liked the idea,” explained American filmmaker Martin Scorsese when discussing The Departed (2006). “Taking from the Hong Kong trilogy of Andrew Lau‘s film [Infernal Affairs], that’s the device, the concept of the two informers. [I am] totally, whether I like it or not, drawn to stories that have to do with trust and betrayal. I found that I kept being drawn back to the script and to the project. It became something else.” Questioned about his shift from portraying Italian criminals to those of Irish heritage, the director observed, “The differences between different ethnic groups as gangsters, that’s purely technical.” Cast in the plot-twisting thriller are Leonardo DiCaprio (The Beach), Matt Damon (The Bourne Supremacy), Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), Martin Sheen (Badlands), Ray Winstone (Edge of Darkness), and Vera Farmiga (Source Code). “It’s really rare in a film of this budget to have characters this interesting,” stated Matt Damon of the $90 million production in which he portrays a gangster mole planted in the Boston police force. Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the undercover police officer, is in agreement with his co-star. “These characters are two sides of the same coin in a lot of ways,” stated DiCaprio. “They come from different backgrounds but they each could have easily made choices the other character made, depending on the circumstances.” The frequent Scorsese collaborator added, “I think the working experience was interesting because it was almost like we were shooting two entirely different films.”
“We shot in an armory in Brooklyn. That’s where there was space,” revealed Martin Scorsese. “I think it was an issue of a very good shooting deal in New York as oppose to Boston.” Leonardo DiCaprio was impressed with those helping behind the scenes. “We had a great technical advisor name Tom Duffy who knew the entire history of Boston and what the streets were like; he was there throughout the entire filmmaking process. The police gave us unbelievable advice. Matt actually went on a raid at a crackhouse.” The frontline knowledge is not something Matt Damon is going to forget. “The ride-along was a great experience,” said Damon. “I was lot closer to the action than I was comfortable with, I’ll tell you that. We did the whole deep breathing, the little huddle before we went in. They gave me a bulletproof vest and put me at the end of the line of people who went crashing through the door.”
Working with three-time Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson left a lasting impression on Leonardo DiCaprio. “He had a short run; he filmed his scenes and then he left. But those were some of the most intense moments of the film.” DiCaprio went on to give an example, “We did the [table] scene one way, and I remember Jack [telling] Marty he didn’t feel that [his portrayal of Costello] was intimidating enough…I came in the next day and the prop guy told me, be careful, he’s got a fire extinguisher, a gun, some matches, and a bottle of whiskey. Some things are in the film that he did that day and some things aren’t.” Matt Damon is quick to point out that, “None of the violence in this film is gratuitous and the characters pay a price for their violence. That’s a good message to send out to people – that there’s a price to pay.” Acknowledging that there is usually a body count associated with his movies, Scorsese remarked, “The thing that gets me going is a sense of energy that can be misdirected into violence.”
“I’ll tell you about Gimme Shelter and The Departed,” stated Martin Scorsese who has also used the Rolling Stones’ song in Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995). “I was coming home from shooting in New York, in heavy traffic on 57th Street. I could hear the song getting louder, coming from the car next to me. This guy with long hair was slamming his head against the steering wheel shouting, ‘It’s just a shot away.’ I said, ‘That’s The Departed. That’s the theme of the movie – it has to be there.’” Leonardo DiCaprio found his role to be extremely challenging. “Playing a guy that has to relay to the audience this constant 24-hour panic attack…surrounded by people that would literally blow my head off if I gave them any indication of who I am, coupled with the fact that I’m sitting across the table from a homicidal maniac who will maybe light me on fire – that gives your character a whole new dimension.” DiCaprio did not let his director down. “There were a lot of scheduling issues and he had to wait a long time for his performance to be actually photographed,” stated Scorsese. “By the last month of shooting, a lot had been building up in his character – simmering anxiety, tension, and anger. It was just extraordinary. We shot all at once and then as we were editing, my editor Thelma [Schoonmaker], looked at me and said, ‘He’s coming off really strong.’”
“It’s the only movie of mine with a plot,” chuckled Martin Scorsese who, upon be rewarded with the Oscar for Best Director after four previous nominations, mischievously asked, “Could you double-check the envelope?” Thelma Schoonmaker, who won her third Academy Award, could not be happier for her colleague. “It’s really wonderful that Marty won at long last,” said Schoonmaker. “We were praying for that. We didn’t really expect to win adapted screenplay, editing, and best picture. We thought maybe Babel [2006] would. Marty was so surprised. The first thing he said to me after the ceremony was, ‘And we won best picture too!’ It would have been pretty devastating if he hadn’t won. I don’t think I could have taken it, frankly.” The only one of the five nominations that The Departed missed out on at the Academy Awards was Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg); it was not as lucky at the BAFTAs where the thriller contended for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Editing, Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the David Lean Award for Direction. Martin Scorsese won for Best Director at the Golden Globes while the film, which grossed $290 million worldwide, received nominations for Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Drama (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg), and Best Screenplay. Thelma Schoonmaker was presented with an Eddie Award by the American Cinema Editors, Scorsese won a Directors Guild of America Award, William Monahan was honoured with Best Adapted Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America, and the movie received a Producers Guild of America nomination. The Departed was lauded at the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards with Best Director, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg), while the National Board of Review Awards handed out trophies for Best Director and Best Ensemble. The Screen Actors Guild of America Awards nominated The Departed for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Leonardo DiCaprio).
The recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors next helmed The Key to Reserva (2007), a commercial for Spanish sparkling wine producer Freixenet. Martin Scorsese discovers three and a half pages of an unfinished screenplay written by Alfred Hitchcock which he decides to film. The 10-minute production stars Simon Baker (L.A. Confedential), Kelli O’Hara (The Dying Gaul), Michael Stuhlbarg (Body of Lies), Christopher Denham (Duplicity), Richard Easton (Dead Again), Ted Griffin (Must Love Dogs), and Nellie Sciutto (Fixing Rhonda).
“Over the years I went to see a number of their shows,” said Martin Scorsese who has often used the music of the Rolling Stones in his movies. “I like the provocation of their music, the anger and frustration of some of their expressions and the subject matter of their songs; Gimme Shelter is an obvious one. People today are crying out for shelter and there is no shelter anymore; even more so now, it’s an anthem of our time.” The director added, “Watching the Stones, I thought [about what] it would be like trying to film a moment in time.” The idea became a reality in 2006 when Scorsese aided with a vast arsenal of cameras filmed the legendary British band performing at New York’s Beacon Theater. “It was as if the first one [concert] was a warm-up. The second started like it was an encore and built from there,” explained the filmmaker. “When the curtain went up I didn’t know what I’d get. Trust me, it’s possible to have 17 cameras and miss everything.” Grossing $16 million worldwide the project titled Shine a Light (2008) was nominated by the Motion Picture Sound Editors for the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Music in a Musical Feature Film.
Next on the cinematic agenda for Martin Scorsese was an adaptation of a psychological thriller written by novelist Dennis Lehane, called Shutter Island (2010). Two U.S. Marshals are sent to a mental institution located on a remote island to investigation the disappearance of an interned murderess. “When I read the script,” remarked the native of Flushing, New York, “I realized it had its roots in something that is classic; it speaks to something very basic about our human nature and about who we are, what we want to conceal and what we have to accept. If we try to know ourselves, are we too afraid sometimes to go into areas that are unpleasant and irrational? Ultimately, what this is all about is ‘know thyself’.” Central to the storyline is the character of U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels. “This film depends on you not knowing where you’re at in any given situation. And so with that in mind, everyday on set was a challenge for me – how I interacted with specific characters, [and] how much I [should] let on as far as what Teddy is really going through.” Scorsese found himself being drawn into the fictional tale. “I tried to pull back a few times and not get so emotionally and psychologically involved…But this story, these characters, it was a very unsettling experience.”
Shutter Island was shot at the notorious Medfield State Hospital in Massachusetts. Built in 1892 and shut down in 2003, at its height the medical facility housed 2200 patients and is rumoured to be haunted by the tormented souls of past patients. Starring in the $80 million psychological thriller are Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Max von Sydow (Snow Falling on Cedars), Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Emily Mortimer (Redbelt), Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs), Jack Earle Haley (Watchmen), Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent), John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac) and Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line). “I was very intrigued by this screenplay,” said Leonardo DiCaprio. “It was very much a throwback to great detective genres of the past, whether it be Vertigo [1958], Out of the Past [1947], or Laura [1944] which were films he screened for us.” Martin Scorsese explained his selection of films. “I screened Laura for everyone just to get a reference to the nature of the detective,” said the director. “There are references to film noir, references to Psycho [1960], to psychological thrillers, to horror films, to films that are basically composed of dreams. So I think ultimately that even if the surprise ending is known – although it has several endings in a way – hopefully it’s a picture you can watch repeatedly because of the behaviour of the characters.” As for what drew him to the subject matter, Scorsese stated, “I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries of the mind because it’s how we perceive what we term reality. Witnesses in a court of law will swear they saw something but if they stood two or three feet in another direction maybe they’d have seen it differently.”
“Emotionally and physically, it was one of the tougher films I’ve ever had to make. It was trying on all of us,” remarked Leo DiCaprio whose trials and tribulations on the set did not go unnoticed by his director. “Leo didn’t like the rats, especially when he put his hand on one. That was one of the tougher days. Or should I say weeks?” Martin Scorsese could empathize with his star. “When I got to shooting and editing it, it was like being thrown down a spiral [staircase].” The filmmaker added, “I think I just tried to approach it from my own reaction to reading the material.” Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley enjoyed collaborating with the man behind the camera. “Marty directs like a lover. Everything is held together by affection for his craft, his actors, his crew, the material, and the great journey of cinema in our lives,” said Kingsley. “I think he must have about 40,000 films in his head or at least on his computer. He knows exactly the scene, without being a teacher and without being heavy, he just invites you to share something and it really is contagious. It was marvelous on Shutter Island for Leo, Mark [Ruffalo] and I.” Earning $295 million worldwide Shutter Island was lauded by the National Board of Review for Best Production Design & Art Direction; it also received nominations for Best Art Direction & Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound at the Satellite Awards. Leonardo DiCaprio won Choice Movie Actor – Horror or Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards, while other nominations for the psychological thriller included Choice Movie Actress – Horror or Thriller (Michelle Williams) and Choice Movie – Horror or Thriller.
Co-directed by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones A Letter to Elia (2010) follows the journey of filmmaker Elia Kazan from Group Theatre to Hollywood, and his controversial role in the blacklisting of his colleagues. The 60-minute documentary features interview footage with Kazan and film clips from On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Baby Doll, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Face in the Crowd, America, America, and The Last Tycoon.
Heading to television, Martin Scorsese directed an 80-minute pilot episode costing $18 million for the HBO. “Boardwalk Empire [2010] was made for what I guess you would call the small screen but we made it like a film,” said the director of the series which is based on the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, The High Times and Corruption in Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson. “The 1920s in my head were always very present because my parents referred to them; the music, the people, the clothes. I know all the songs from that period; I know all the films. We knew it all and so it was a natural transition. But you know I really was fascinated with the idea of working with Terry Winter [The Sopranos] and these guys, and taking these characters over 13 hours, developing them, developing their story, the complications of corruption in American politics.” The Emmy-winning creator of the TV series, Terence Winter, found himself also being drawn to the era. “The 1920s were the most interesting to me because it was an era that hasn’t really been depicted often in cinema, and almost never in television.”
Boardwalk Empire features the acting talents of Steve Buscemi (Fargo), Michael Pitt (The Dreamers), Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men), Shea Whigham (Tigerland), Aleksa Palladino (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Michael Stuhlbarg, Stephen Graham (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), Vincent Piazza (Assassination of a High School President), and Paz de la Huerta (Enter the Void). “At its centre was this incredible lead character, Nuck Johnson, upon whom Steve’s character is based,” said Winter. “This was a guy who was incredibly conflicted, being equal parts politician and gangster. And then, that was coupled with the massive changes going on in the 1920s: like Prohibition, the women’s vote and broadcast radio.” The first 12-episode season came with a price tag of $65 million and won Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama (Steve Buscemi), and Best Television Series – Drama at the Golden Globes where it also contended for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Kelly Macdonald). The Screen Actors Guild handed out nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Buscemi), and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. For his contribution in helming the pilot episode, Martin Scorsese won a Directors Guild of America Award.
Also for HBO, Martin Scorsese produced Public Speaking (2010), a documentary about Fran Lebowitz, who is an American author know for her sardonic social commentary which has led her being christened the modern day Dorothy Parker. Another documentary Scorsese has in the works is a profile on a former Beatle called Living in the Material World: George Harrison (2011).
Venturing into the realm of children’s literature, Martin Scorsese is cinematically adapting The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Renamed Hugo Cabret (2011), the story revolves around an orphan who secretly inhabits the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris; he seeks to unravel a mystery surrounding his deceased father and an automaton. The cast of the adventure film stars Asa Butterfield (Son of Rambow), Chloë Moretz (Let Me In), Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), Emily Mortimer, Michael Pitt, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Christopher Lee (Season of the Witch), Helen McCrory (Becoming Jane), Richard Griffiths (The History Boys), Michael Stuhlbarg, and Ray Winstone. “It is really a story of a little boy,” said Scorsese. “He does become friends with the older George Méliès who was discovered in 1927, or 1928, working in a toy store, completely bankrupt. And then he was revived in a way with a beautiful gala in 1928, in Paris. And in my film, the cinema itself is the connection – the automaton, the machine itself becomes the emotional connection between the boy, his father, Méliès, and his family.” The director is breaking into a new territory for him – 3D filmmaking. “Every shot is rethinking the camera, [and] rethinking the narrative – how to tell a story with a picture. Now, I’m not saying we have to keep throwing javelins at the camera; I’m not saying we use it as a gimmick, but it’s liberating. It’s literally a Rubik’s Cube every time you go out and design a shot and work out a camera move, or a crane move. But it has a beauty also; people look like…moving statues.” Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker shares Scorsese’s enthusiasm. “It’s a whole new kind of film for us. It’s very visual, very little dialogue, lots of opportunities for wonderful 3D shots, because the boy’s job is to keep the clocks wound, so you can imagine the giant wheels being built. Everyone’s excited about it. It will have a broad appeal.” Chosen to play George Méliès is Ben Kingsley. “It examines the early days of cinema through the eyes of a child,” remarked Kingsley who enjoyed being reunited with the filmmaker. “One of the blessings of working under his love and guidance is that whatever you offer the camera he will see every scrap that you offer. He doesn’t miss anything.”
Other projects in the works for Martin Scorsese are a biopic on Hollywood icon Frank Sinatra and a cinematic adaptation of Silence by Shusaku Endo, about Portuguese Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan. There are suggestions that Scorsese will reunite with Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver) to produce two films based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt which is about mob assassin Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran. The filmmaker has also been connecting with his other acting muse Leonardo DiCaprio who is to star in The Wolf of Wall Street; it is based on the memoir penned by high living stockbroker Jordan Belfort who was sent to prison for stock manipulation.
Along with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Evelyn F. Burkley from the WGA, both of which he received in 2003, Martin Scorsese added another award to his collection in 2010; the Golden Globes bestowed upon him the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Over the course of his career, the New Yorker has directed 17 different actors in Oscar nominated performances and during a brief tenure at NYU he taught future moviemakers Oliver Stone (Platoon), Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) and Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused). “He infects you with his enthusiasm,” stated Thelma Schoonmaker. “That’s why he’s such a good teacher; he doesn’t lecture you, he makes you excited and want to see all the films he loves. As for the work, it’s so intense, so fulfilling, you feel so proud of the film at the end. I know many other editors who work on films they hate and they’re bitter. I’m never that way.” Leonardo DiCaprio is equally full of praise. “He saved me. I was headed down a path of being one kind of actor, and he helped me become another one. The one I wanted to be.”
Even after making four movies together, DiCaprio remains astounded by the cinematic knowledge of Martin Scorsese. “He’s a professor of film. The man has seen almost every film ever made up until 1980. You get an education while working with him every single day. He screens movies for you to talk about specific scenes and what he’s trying to convey up on the screen. You can ask him a question about a character or the way a scene should go and he can show you 20 different examples of filmmakers that have done that in the past, the way it’s been done right, the way it’s been done wrong. It’s an incredible learning experience.” There is no doubt that the Academy Award-winning director is devoted to his craft. “I’m literally obsessed with the filmmaking process,” readily admitted Scorsese. “Given the chance to learn or experience or something, whether it’s the storm scene in Cape Fear [1991], the world of the 1920s, Hollywood and aviation in The Aviator [2004], I find myself wanting to get back there on set and then, especially in the editing room, to see those images come together. I really enjoy doing it.”
For more on the director be sure to visit the Martin Scorsese Fansite and ScorseseFilms.com, along with the BFI documentary A Personal Journey with Scorsese Through American Movies.
Short Film Showcase – What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Short Film Showcase – The Big Shave
Short Film Showcase – The Key to Reserva
Wolf Pack: The Making of The Wolf of Wall Street
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
