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1.7.03 - 2.9.03
MARTIN SCORSESE  Like the French New Wave directors, Martin Scorsese grew up watching movies voraciously. Inspired by this apprenticeship, Scorsese emerged as central figure in the American "new wave" of the 1970s with a ferocious triangulation of art, passion and violence in his films. Since MEAN STREETS officially launched his career in 1973, Scorsese has explored with his bravura signature style the lives of outsiders, from Jake La Motta to Jesus Christ, who struggle to find and maintain their place in a world of failing codes and traditions. As flawed as Scorsese's archetypal protagonists might be, the filmmaker never withholds from them the possibility of redemption.
Along with Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, Scorsese was a central figure in the film-school generation that revived a moribund Hollywood in the 1970s. In so doing, he gathered a group of frequent collaborators (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Paul Schrader, Thelma Schoonmaker) to produce a body of work of unparalleled technical achievement. Scorsese’s craftsmanship and vision are on a par with the work of such legendary filmmakers as Vincente Minnelli and Michael Powell, whose careers the director has frequently championed. Scorsese is also a tireless advocate for film preservation who created The Film Foundation to ensure the survival of the cinematic past.
Martin Scorsese’s career now spans three decades and counting. In this series, we have focused on his early work, including a number of his short films, and on a few of his professed favorite films by other directors, in tribute to this most cinematically omnivorous of American filmmakers.
This series has been made possible with sponsorship from 
Special thanks to: Margaret Bodde, Andrew Bottomley—The Film Foundation; Kent Jones, Mark McElhatten—Cappa Productions; Cynthia Swartz—Miramax Films; Anne Morra—Museum of Modern Art; Caroline Yeager—George Eastman House; David Schwartz, Peter Dowd—American Museum of the Moving Image; John Kirk—MGM; Michael Schlesinger—Columbia Repertory. Thursday January 9 2003, 7:30PM
A Selection of Scorsese Shorts IT'S NOT JUST YOU, MURRAY!
(1964) Directed by Martin Scorsese Encouraged by his teacher and mentor at NYU, Haig P. Manoogian, Scorsese drew from the people and stories of his Lower East Side neighborhood for his second student film in which a small-time sharpie winks at the camera and spins hilarious tall tales to prove himself a big shot in his own mind. THE BIG SHAVE
(1967) Directed by Martin Scorsese Scorsese veered sharply into surrealist territory for what may be his most overtly political film, intended to comment on the Vietnam War. ITALIANAMERICAN
(1974) Directed by Martin Scorsese Scorsese’s parents, Charles and Catherine, have made numerous appearances in their son’s films but none more intimate and winning than in this documentary shot in their Elizabeth Street apartment. For the relaxed freedom of form he allows himself as his parents reminisce about their lives and their neighborhood—while his mother prepares her famous pasta sauce—Scorsese has referred to ITALIANAMERICAN as a personal favorite among his films. BAD
(1987) Directed by Martin Scorsese Scorsese directs Michael Jackson in this long-form music video for the title track off Jackson's Bad album. Richard Price wrote the framing story, shot in black-and-white, about a bookish student (Jackson) forced to prove that he’s still down to the neighborhood toughs (including Wesley Snipes) while Scorsese seems to turn to WEST SIDE STORY as inspiration for a fantasy dance number shot in a deserted subway station. MADE IN MILAN
(1990) Directed by Martin Scorsese Famed fashion designer Giorgio Armani discusses his work, his family and the history of Milan with Scorsese in this documentary portrait. Presented in Italian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 20 min. WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR?
(1968) Directed by Martin Scorsese Harvey Keitel stars as J.R., a serious young Italian-American drifting away from his crew of aimless Lower East Side friends in what began as Scorsese's thesis film for NYU. Zina Bethune, as "the Girl," seems to offer J.R. an exit strategy to adulthood, until he proves unable to cope with the rape in her past. Looming Catholic imagery, extensive dolly shots, freeze frame, slow motion and a soundtrack of pitch-perfect pop songs sharpen this early exploration of guilt, loyalty and the demands of love. The film marks the beginning of Scorsese's collaboration with Keitel and with editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Preceded by SCORPIO RISING
(1964) Directed by Kenneth Anger Anger's homoerotic ode to the mythology of the rebel is an idiosyncratic mix of religious iconography, biker footage, and sex and violence. The obsessive nature of the imagery may have informed Scorsese's work, but the most direct influence seems to stem from the film's free use of pop songs and rock and roll to score its mayhem. Saturday January 11 2003, 7:30PM
I VITELLONI
(1953, Italy) Directed by Federico Fellini In a quiet seaside town, a group of young men (vitelloni, or loafers) amuse themselves and avoid gainful employment and the responsibilities of adulthood by hanging out, playing pranks and dreaming of women. The film casts the sexual and emotional transformations of three of the vitelloni against the backdrop of small-town provincialism. The detailed characterizations give I VITELLONI a penetrating psychological complexity. Fellini's affectionate but critical regard for his protagonists foreshadows the tone of MEAN STREETS. Screenwriter: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano. Cinematographer: Otello Martelli. Editor: Rolando Benedetti. Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo Trieste. Presented in Italian dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 103 min. MEAN STREETS
(1973) Directed by Martin Scorsese  As screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi said, "Wiseguys love the THE GODFATHER, [but] their favorite Mafia movie is MEAN STREETS. This is a home movie to them." In one of his most personal films, Scorsese deepens an episodic portrait of the petty, violent milieu of New York's smalltime Italian hoods with the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), an ambitious mob runner who sees reminders of damnation in every match flame. For Charlie, penance means action so he ties his expiation—and his fate—to saving the delinquent Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) from himself. De Niro's edgy performance established him as an actor to watch, while the film itself, shot through with bold technique, burns with the energy of a young director just sensing the range and power of his vision.
Sunday January 12 2003, 7:00PM
ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
(1975) Directed by Martin Scorsese  Ellen Burstyn won her first Academy Award® for her role as Alice, a recent widow who takes her young son on the road to pursue her dream of being a singer. As they cross the West in a beat-up station wagon on their way to Monterey, California—the last place Alice remembers being happy—love and money conspire to keep Alice running in place. Between the gorgeous homage to William Cameron Menzies in an opening flashback and Burstyn's improvisational performance, the film plays on the invigorating tension between Scorsese's love of classic Hollywood artifice and his drive for realism.
BOXCAR BERTHA
(1972) Directed by Martin Scorsese  Struggling in Los Angeles editing other people's films, Scorsese jumped at producer Roger Corman's offer to direct this sex-and-blood barnstormer about a feisty orphan (Barbara Hershey) and an incendiary labor leader (David Carradine) who fall in love, spread dissent and rob trains throughout the Depression-era South. Upon its release, John Cassavetes reportedly warned Scorsese about the dangers of making exploitation films, but the production's budgetary discipline and the film's fevered drive form a crucial bridge between the earnest art of WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? and the genre punch of MEAN STREETS.
Based on Sister of the Road by Bertha Thompson, Ben L. Reitman. Screenwriter: Joyce H. Corrington, John William Corrington. Cinematographer: John Stephens. Editor: Buzz Feitshans. Cast: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey. 35mm, 88 min. Thursday January 16 2003, 7:30PM
A TRIBUTE TO MARTIN SCORSESE Martin Scorsese will appear in person for this mid-career presentation of memorable moments from his films. The program will include clips and a discussion with Mr. Scorsese, culminating in a question-and-answer session with the audience. For further information, please check the Archive's website, www.cinema.ucla.edu, or call 310.206.8013.
Note: This event will take place at the Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd.
In person: Martin Scorsese
Advance tickets for this event have sold out. However, there will be tickets for sale at the DGA on the night of the event. Not all of the tickets for the event were sold in advance. A limited number has been set aside for sale the night of the event. In addition, any unclaimed tickets from those set aside for invited guests will be released for sale before curtain time. The box office at the DGA will open at 6:30 p.m., one hour before the event.
The Archive's regular ticket prices apply to this event: $7/general admission, $5/students and senior citizens. Limit: 4 tickets per person. Friday January 17 2003, 7:30PM
RAGING BULL
(1980) Directed by Martin Scorsese  Scorsese was never a boxing fan, but after reading Jake La Motta's autobiography at Robert De Niro's suggestion, he came to understand La Motta as a man at war with himself. The director approaches La Motta's major bouts as occasions for stunning, visceral camera work. But the film's heart concerns La Motta's life outside the ring where jealousy and rage poison his relationships with his brother (Joe Pesci) and second wife (Cathy Moriarty). Shot in a dramatic black-and-white evocative of William Klein's street photography, RAGING BULL compels us to empathize with a brute unable to express his need for love or redemption except through violence.
Based on the book by Jake La Motta with Joseph Carter, Peter Savage. Producer: Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin. Cinematographer: Michael Chapman. Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker. Cast: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci. 35mm, 119 min. Saturday January 18 2003, 7:30PM
MURDER BY CONTRACT
(1958) Directed by Irving Lerner Irving Lerner's tough, taut and deliciously subversive "B" thriller stars Vince Edwards as Claude, a compulsive contract killer with a plan. Every unlucky stiff he knocks off brings him closer to his own American dream—a little piece of heaven off the Ohio River. But it's this upward mobility that eventually causes Claude's downfall: his well-ordered world is upset when he learns that his next hit is a woman. In praising the film Scorsese noted, "the spirit of MURDER BY CONTRACT has a lot to do with TAXI DRIVER. Lerner was an artist who knew how to do things in shorthand, like Bresson and Godard. The film puts us all to shame with its economy of style." TAXI DRIVER
(1976) Directed by Martin Scorsese  In a career of remarkable collaborations, TAXI DRIVER stands as the most explosive meeting of script, director and star in Scorsese's oeuvre. Screenwriter Paul Schrader has famously said that the film's story of a loner consumed by grandiose fantasies "jumped out of me like an animal." Scorsese's camera prowls a crime-ridden New York to a Bernard Herrmann score, creating a seductive spell of noirish jazz and slick, seething streets. As would-be avenging angel Travis Bickle, the cabbie lost in his own long dark night, Robert De Niro fans the embers of an awkward loneliness into a psycho, saintly fire.
Sunday January 19 2003, 2:00PM
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
(1988) Directed by Martin Scorsese  Immediately met with protests when Scorsese first began pre-production on screenwriter Paul Schrader's adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial novel, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST has survived years of righteous fury to emerge as one of the cinema's most powerful works of religious faith. At once reverent and deeply questioning, profoundly beautiful and plainly spoken, the film features Willem Dafoe in a riveting performance as a Jesus plagued by all-too-human doubts and fears as he struggles to understand his divinity. Scorsese drew on a lifetime of influences, from his early parochial training to Renaissance paintings to Pier Paolo Pasolini to Richard Fleischer's BARABBAS, to bring Christ's era vividly to life.
Based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Producer: Barbara De Fina. Screenwriter: Paul Schrader. Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus. Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker. Cast: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton. 35mm, 164 min. Sunday January 19 2003, 7:00PM
THE MAN I LOVE
(1947) Directed by Raoul Walsh Ida Lupino plays a chanteuse in a Santa Monica nightspot run by mobster Robert Alda. Between smoky renditions of the Gershwin title song, Lupino brings her working-girl smarts to the aid of her siblings, each of whom is in or heading for trouble. Meanwhile, Alda uses his mob connections to try to break up her relationship with a burnt-out pianist. Director Walsh is best known for his crime films; here he infuses the melodrama with a hard edge which renders it that much more poignant. Besides its engaging performances, the film's ping-ponging emotional tensions and jazzy atmospherics shift it from soap opera to a touching slice of postwar life. Based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff. Producer: Arnold Albert. Screenwriter: Catherine Turney, Jo Pagano. Cinematographer: Sid Hickox. Editor: Owen Marks. Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, Martha Vickers. 35mm, 97 min. NEW YORK, NEW YORK
(1977) Directed by Martin Scorsese  Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli coo and joust as lovers in a jubilant postwar New York during the closing years of the Big Band era. He's a hepped-up saxophone player driven to wail from the soul, while she's a generous, pragmatic singer who only hopes to entertain. In this under-appreciated musical drama that Scorsese called his "valentine to Hollywood," the two sides of the filmmaker's own temperament meet, fall in love, improvise a roller-coaster affair and part ways. In dazzling production numbers, Scorsese pays homage to Vincente Minnelli and Michael Powell while edging this revisiting of Hollywood romance with the darker sides of ambition and fame.
Friday January 24 2003, 7:30PM
SILVER LODE
(1954) Directed by Allan Dwan This McCarthy-era Western finds stalwart John Payne as a rancher set to bury his checkered past by marrying Lizabeth Scott. His plans go awry when a U.S. Marshal shows up and turns the town against him with false accusations of murder. It is not by accident that the marshal's name is McCarty and that the action takes place on the 4th of July. Besides the political allegory, SILVER LODE has been lauded by Scorsese for the beauty of John Alton's color cinematography and Dwan's economical directing. GOODFELLAS
(1990) Directed by Martin Scorsese  With GOODFELLAS, Scorsese returned to his old New York neighborhood to recount the rise and fall of wiseguy Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). The film turns the coming-of-age story inside out with a shocking sense of irony, tragedy and dark humor. This saga of a paradise found and lost is charted over three decades in a dizzying rush of styles and sounds. Scorsese's gliding camera, freeze frames and use of period music create a world that cannot help but attract, no matter how morally repellent.
Based on the book Wiseguy by N. Pileggi. Producer: Irwin Winkler. Screenwriter: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese. Cinematographer: Michael Ballhaus. Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker. Cast: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco. 35mm, 139 min. Sunday January 26 2003, 2:00PM
A PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH MARTIN SCORSESE THROUGH AMERICAN MOVIES
(1995) Directed by Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson The most avidly cinephilic of contemporary American film directors, Scorsese conducts this nearly four-hour documentary tour of classic Hollywood cinema with the eyes of a practitioner and the heart of an enthusiast. Less standard history than idiosyncratic film appreciation, the aptly titled PERSONAL JOURNEY acknowledges the canon but reserves its real passion for the vigorous B-movies that thrilled Scorsese as a youth and inspired him to become a director. The bedrock genres—western, gangster, musical—are fervently defended, while mavericks like Welles, Fuller and Cassavetes heroically assume their place in Scorsese's persuasively argued, and utterly personal, pantheon of American cinema. |