Although Scorsese’s father kept a clean nose, he often had to step in to save his brother Joe “The Bug” Scorsese, the filmmaker’s uncle who was another inspiration for Johnny Boy. I thought I was familiar with Scorsese’s stories, but this was the first time I had heard of Joe the Bug. Along the way, Scorsese adds surprising details about how his childhood still influences his art. Asthma kept him indoors, looking out at the street from an upper-floor window. “That’s why I like high-angle shots,” he says.
This documentary reminds us that the career of the man now hailed as one of the greatest living filmmakers was more tumultuous than many realize. De Niro encouraged Scorsese to make The King of Comedy (1982), and Scorsese reluctantly agreed. However, he sometimes did not show up on set until the afternoon. “I didn’t want to be there,” he says. The film, in which De Niro played celebrity stalker Rupert Pupkin, is considered a brilliantly ahead-of-its-time take on fame and fan obsession, but it was a box office disaster. Scorsese returned, but more than a decade later, the commercial failures of Kundan (1997) and Bring Out the Dead (1999) left his career, in Scorsese’s words, “dead.” Also”. DiCaprio had the influence to reverse that latest setback and get Gangs of New York (2002) made.
Apple TV+It’s also easy to forget how controversial some of his films, particularly Taxi Driver and its rampaging antihero Travis Bickle, were for their violence. When Scorsese read Schrader’s script, he said, “It was as if I had written it myself.” Miller asked, “At that moment, what felt the most about that movie for you?” He pauses and answers carefully, making it clear that he doesn’t act or condone anything like Travis Bickle, then says, “Anger, loneliness, and no way to really connect with people.” The sense of being an outsider ties back to the working-class background that made him an odd fit for New York University film school and Hollywood. “Violence is scary inside you. Can you do it?” he reflected, adding that on-screen violence is a positive thing “if it’s real violence.” In 1981, Taxi Driver was back in the headlines when John Hinckley shot and killed Ronald Reagan after becoming obsessed with Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in the movie. The Academy Awards ceremony was postponed until the day after the shooting, and Rossellini recalled that Scorsese wore a bulletproof vest to the Oscars.
The documentary does not focus on Scorsese’s personal life. He admits that his job has made him a distant father to the older two of his three children from separate marriages, all of whom are interviewed here and have good relationships with him. But he was there for his youngest daughter Francesca, who recently made him a TikTok star. video Like Dad guessed the slang.
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And even when Scorsese is cautious, Miller deftly adds information. He said he had panic attacks while working on Gangs of New York because, among other vague reasons, “people were getting sick.” Mr. Miller inserts a photo of his wife, Helen, to whom he has been married for 26 years. As Francesca later explained, her mother had previously been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The glimpses we get of the trio at home are as personal as this documentary is about his life today.
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
