Martin Scorsese

MARTIN SCORSESE: Born November 17, 1942, in Flushing, New York, Martin Scorsese is known for his gritty, meticulous filmmaking style and is widely considered one of the most important directors of all time
WHO IS HE? Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time. He has won an AcademyAward, a Palme d'Or, Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival), Silver Lion, Grammy Award, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.
EARLY YEARS: Martin Scorsese was born November 17, 1942, in Flushing, New York. Raised by Italian-American parents in the Little Italy district of Manhattan. Scorsese's parents, Charles and Catherine, both worked part-time as actors, helping set the stage fortheir son's love of cinema.
See why everything happens for a reason, because Scorsese was afflicted by severe asthma, his childhood activities were limited; rather than play sports, he spent much of his time in front of the television or at the movie theater, where he fell in love especially with stories about the Italian experience and films by director Michael Powell. By the time he was eightyears old, Scorsese was already drawing his own storyboards –often complete with the line, "Directed and Produced by Martin Scorsese."
Although his parents "didn't get" his mania for movies, Scorsese felt he was headed in the right direction when a 10-minute comedy short earned him a $500 scholarship to New York University.
CINEMATIC SUCCESS: In 1968, Scorsese completed his first feature-lengthfilm, Who's That Knocking at My Door? While working on that project, he met Harvey Keitel, whom he would go on to cast in many future projects, as well as Thelma Schoonmaker, an editor with whom he would collaborate for more than 40 years.
In 1973, Scorsese directed Mean Streets, his first film to be widely acknowledged as a masterpiece. The film showcased elements that have since become trademarksof Scorsese's filmmaking: dark themes, unsympathetic lead characters, religion, the Mafia, unusual camera techniques and contemporary music. In general Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,[16] machismo, modern crime, and violence. Directing Mean Streets also introduced Scorsese to Robert De Niro, sparking one ofthe most dynamic filmmaking partnerships in Hollywood history.
Scorsese directed hard-hitting films that helped define a generation of cinema. Taxi Driver, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and fixed De Niro's status as a living movie legend. Apparently, it also inspired an unstable John Hinckley to attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan five years later. "I never thought ina million years there was a connection with the film," Scorsese later recalled. "It turned out even my limo driver was FBI." So I guess not even knowing it he created good and bad influences. You see the legacy.
Scorsese and De Niro struck gold together once more in their 1980 picture Raging Bull. Expecting it to be his last feature film, Scorsese decided to "pull out all the stops and then finda new career." Although initial reactions were mixed due to the picture's violent nature, Raging Bull is now widely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time.Abandoning thoughts of leaving the industry, he directed his first huge box-office success, The Color of Money. The two of Scorsese's most important Mafia movies to date: GoodFellas and Casino.Also for us, we know him becausehe was the creator of Hugo who mostly took all the awards in the Oscars of 2011.
A LIVING LEGEND: Scorsese once revealed that his "wildest dream" was to write music. While he seems unlikely to become a rock star or conduct an orchestra, he did use his filmmaking talents to make his mark on the music industry. In 1978, Scorsese made an acclaimed documentary called The Last Waltz, showcasing the...