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After a decade of films considered by critics to be mixed results, some considered Scorsese's gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) his return to directorial form, and his most confident and fully realized film since Raging Bull. De Niro and Joe Pesci offered a virtuoso display of Scorsese's bravura cinematic technique in the film and re-established, enhanced, and consolidated his reputation. After the film was released, Roger Ebert, a friend and supporter of Scorsese, named Goodfellas "the best mob movie ever". It is ranked No. 1 on Ebert's movie list for 1990, along with those of Gene Siskel and Peter Travers', and is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves). Joe Pesci earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. Scorsese and the film also won many other awards, including five BAFTA Awards, a Silver Lion and more. The American Film Institute placed Goodfellas at No. 94 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list. On the 2007 updated version, they moved Goodfellas up to No. 92 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list (10th Anniversary Edition) and put Goodfellas at No. 2 on their list of the top 10 gangster films (after The Godfather). |
In 1990, he released his only short-form documentary: Made in Milan about fashion designer Giorgio Armani. The following year brought Cape Fear, a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same name and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another foray into the mainstream, the film was a stylized thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). The film garnered two Oscar nominations, and earned $80 million in domestic box office, placing it as Scorsese's most commercially successful release until The Aviator (2004), and then The Departed (2006). The film also marked the first time Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. |
In 1990, Scorsese acted in a small role as Vincent van Gogh in the film Dreams by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Scorsese's 1994 cameo appearance in the Robert Redford film Quiz Show is remembered for the telling line: "You see, the audience didn't tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money." |
In 1994, Scorsese and producer Barbara De Fina formed the production company |
De Fina-Cappa. In the early 1990s, Scorsese also expanded his role as a film producer. He produced a wide range of films, including major Hollywood studio productions (Mad Dog and Glory, Clockers), low-budget independent films (The Grifters, Naked in New York, Grace of My Heart, Search and Destroy, The Hi-Lo Country), and even the foreign film Con gli occhi chiusi (With Closed Eyes). |
The Age of Innocence (1993) was a significant departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon its original release but was a box office bomb, making an overall loss. As noted in Scorsese on Scorsese by editor–interviewer Ian Christie, the news that Scorsese wanted to make a film about a failed 19th-century romance raised many eyebrows among the film fraternity; all the more when Scorsese made it clear that it was a personal project and not a studio for-hire job. |
Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece", and he was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text. Scorsese wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works. To this end, Scorsese sought influence from diverse period films that had had an emotional impact on him. In Scorsese on Scorsese, he documents influences from films such as Luchino Visconti's Senso and his Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) as well as Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons and also Roberto Rossellini's La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (The Taking of Power by Louis XIV). Although The Age of Innocence was ultimately different from these films in terms of narrative, story, and thematic concern, the presence of a lost society, of lost values as well as detailed re-creations of social customs and rituals continues the tradition of these films. It came back into the public eye, especially in countries such as the UK and France, but still is largely neglected in North America. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including Best Adapted Screenplay for Scorsese), winning the Costume Design Oscar. This was his first collaboration with the Academy Award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he would work again on Gangs of New York. This was Scorsese's first film to be shot on Super 35 format. |
Casino (1995), like The Age of Innocence before it, focused on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent gangster film made it more palatable to the director's fans who perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film. Casino was a box office success, and it received generally positive notices from critics. Comparisons were drawn to his earlier film Goodfellas, and Scorsese admitted Casino bore a superficial resemblance to it, but he maintained that the story was significantly larger in scope. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance. During the filming, Scorsese played a background part as a gambler at one of the tables. |
Scorsese still found time for a four-hour documentary in 1995, titled A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, offering a thorough trek through American cinema. It covered the silent era to 1969, a year after which Scorsese began his feature career. He said, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries." In the four-hour documentary, Scorsese lists the four aspects of the director he believes are the most important as (1) the director as storyteller; (2) the director as an illusionist: D. W. Griffith or F. W. Murnau, who created new editing techniques among other innovations that made the appearance of sound and color possible later on; (3) the director as a smuggler—filmmakers such as Douglas Sirk, Samuel Fuller, and Vincente Minnelli, who used to hide subversive messages in their films; and (4) the director as iconoclast. In the preface to this documentary, Scorsese states his commitment to the "Director's Dilemma", in which a successful contemporary director must be pragmatic about the realities of getting financing for films of personal esthetic interest by accepting the need of "making one film for the studio, and (then) making one for oneself." |
If The Age of Innocence alienated and confused some fans, then Kundun (1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the People's Liberation Army's entry into Tibet, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not only a departure in subject matter, Kundun saw Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach. Traditional dramatic devices were substituted for a trance-like meditation achieved through an elaborate tableau of colorful visual images. The film was a source of turmoil for its distributor, Buena Vista Pictures, which was planning significant expansion into the Chinese market at the time. Initially defiant in the face of pressure from Chinese officials, Disney has since distanced itself from the project, hurting Kundun's commercial profile. In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the director's reputation. In the long term, however, it appears Kundun has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director, mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour. Kundun was Scorsese's second attempt to profile the life of a great religious leader, following The Last Temptation of Christ. |
Bringing Out the Dead (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic take on their own earlier Taxi Driver. Like earlier Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recall the films of Robert Bresson. (It is also worth noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is reminiscent of After Hours.) It received generally positive reviews, although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other films. It stars Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, and Patricia Arquette. |
On various occasions Scorsese has been asked to present the Honorary Academy Award during the Oscar telecast. In 1998, at the 70th Academy Awards, Scorsese presented the award to film legend Stanley Donen. When accepting the award Donen quipped, "Marty this is backwards, I should be giving this to you, believe me". In 1999, at the 71st Academy Awards, Scorsese and De Niro presented the award to film director Elia Kazan. This was a controversial pick for the academy due to Kazan's involvement with the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s. Several members of the audience including Nick Nolte and Ed Harris refused to applaud Kazan when he received the award while others such as Warren Beatty, Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, and Kurt Russell gave him a standing ovation. |
2000–2015: Film and television work |
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In 1999, Scorsese directed a documentary on Italian filmmakers titled Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, also known as My Voyage to Italy. The documentary foreshadowed Scorsese's next project, the epic Gangs of New York (2002), influenced by (amongst many others) major Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and filmed in its entirety at Rome's famous Cinecittà film studios. With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, Gangs of New York was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream venture to date. Like The Age of Innocence, it was set in 19th-century New York, although focusing on the other end of the social scale (and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The film marked the first collaboration between Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who became a fixture in later Scorsese films. The production was highly troubled, with many rumors referring to the director's conflict with Miramax Films boss Harvey Weinstein. The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes, while Scorsese's original cut was over 180 minutes long. |
Despite denials of artistic compromise, some felt that Gangs of New York was Scorsese's most conventional film, featuring standard film tropes that Scorsese had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely for exposition purposes and explanatory flashbacks. Even so, the film received generally positive reviews with the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75 percent of the reviews for the film they tallied were positive and summarizing the critics writing, "Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance." The film's central themes are consistent with Scorsese's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally endemic, and subcultural divisions down ethnic lines. Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; Miramax Films consequently delayed the film until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002. Gangs of New York earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best Director. In February 2003, Gangs of New York received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis; however, it did not win in any category. |
The following year, Scorsese completed production of The Blues, an expansive seven-part documentary tracing the history of blues music from its African roots to the Mississippi Delta and beyond. Seven filmmakers including Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, and Scorsese himself each contributed a 90-minute film (Scorsese's entry was titled Feel Like Going Home). In the early 2000s, Scorsese produced several films for up-and-coming directors, such as You Can Count on Me (directed by Kenneth Lonergan), Rain (directed by Katherine Lindberg), Lymelife (directed by Derick Martini) and The Young Victoria (directed by Jean-Marc Vallée). At that time, he established Sikelia Productions. In 2003, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff joined the company. Scorsese also produced several documentaries, such as The Soul of a Man (directed by Wim Wenders) and Lightning in a Bottle (directed by Antoine Fuqua). |
Scorsese's film The Aviator (2004) is a lavish, large-scale biopic of eccentric aviation pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes and reunited Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The film received highly positive reviews. The film was a widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition. The Aviator was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Motion Picture-Drama and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama. In January 2005 The Aviator became the most-nominated film of the 77th Academy Awards nominations, nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations in nearly all the other major categories, including a fifth Best Director nomination for Scorsese. Despite having the most nominations, the film won only five Oscars. Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (which also won Best Picture). |
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Scorsese that tells of the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and the culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the 1960s, his then-controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in both the United States (as part of the PBS American Masters series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two Arena series) on September 26 to 27, 2005. A DVD version of the film was released the same month. The film won a Peabody Award and the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. In addition, Scorsese received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, losing to Baghdad ER. |
Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs (which is co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak). The film continued Scorsese's collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and was the first time he worked with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen. The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim, with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's Goodfellas, and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. With domestic box office receipts surpassing US$129.4 million, The Departed was Scorsese's highest-grossing film (not accounting for inflation) until 2010's Shutter Island. The Departed earned Scorsese a second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critics' Choice Award, his first Directors Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director. Presented with the latter, Scorsese poked fun at his track record of nominations, asking, "Could you double-check the envelope?" The award was presented by his longtime friends and colleagues Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The Departed also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film. |
Shine a Light captures rock and roll band the Rolling Stones' performing at New York City's Beacon Theatre on October 29 and November 1, 2006, intercut with brief news and interview footage from throughout their career. The film was initially scheduled for release on September 21, 2007, but Paramount Classics postponed its general release until April 2008. Its world premiere was at the opening of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival on February 7, 2008. "Marty did an amazing job of making us look great ..." observed drummer Charlie Watts. "It's all in the edits and the cuts. That's a movie maker rather than a guy just shooting a band onstage ... It's not Casablanca, but it's a great thing to have from our point of view, not being egotistical. It's a document." |
In 2009, Scorsese signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects." |
On October 22, 2007, Daily Variety reported that Scorsese would reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio on a fourth picture, Shutter Island. Principal photography on the Laeta Kalogridis screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, began in Massachusetts in March 2008. In December 2007, actors Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, and Michelle Williams joined the cast, marking the first time these actors had worked with Scorsese. The film was released on February 19, 2010. On May 20, 2010, Shutter Island became Scorsese's highest-grossing film. In 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported that Scorsese was supporting the David Lynch Foundation's initiative to help 10,000 military veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder through Transcendental Meditation; Scorsese has publicly discussed his own practice of TM. |
Scorsese directed a television commercial for Chanel's then-new men's fragrance, Bleu de Chanel, starring French actor Gaspard Ulliel. Filmed in New York City, it debuted online on August 25, 2010, and was released on TV in September 2010. Scorsese directed the series premiere for Boardwalk Empire, an HBO drama series, starring Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt, based on Nelson Johnson's book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City. Terence Winter, who wrote for The Sopranos, created the series. In addition to directing the pilot (for which he won the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing), Scorsese also served as an executive producer on the series. The series premiered on September 19, 2010, and ran for five seasons. |
Scorsese directed the three-and-a-half-hour documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World about the life and music of former Beatles' member George Harrison, which premiered in the United States on HBO over two parts on October 5 and 6, 2011. His next film Hugo is a 3D adventure drama film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, and Jude Law. The film has been met with critical acclaim and earned Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning five of them and becoming tied with Michel Hazanavicius's film The Artist for the most Academy Awards won by a single film in 2011. Hugo also won two BAFTA awards, among numerous other awards and nominations. Hugo was Scorsese's first 3D film and was released in the United States on November 23, 2011. |
Scorsese's 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, is an American biographical black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoir of the same name. The screenplay was written by Terence Winter and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, along with Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, and others. The film marked the fifth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio and the second between Scorsese and Winter after Boardwalk Empire. It was released on December 25, 2013. The film tells the story of a New York stockbroker, played by DiCaprio, who engages in a large securities fraud case involving illicit stock manipulation, by way of the practice of "pump and dump". DiCaprio was given the award for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy as well. The Wolf of Wall Street was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill, Best Director for Martin Scorsese, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Terence Winter but did not win in any category. In a 2016 critics' poll conducted by the BBC, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000. |
Scorsese and David Tedeschi made a documentary about the history of The New York Review of Books, titled The 50 Year Argument. It screened as a work in progress at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2014 and premiered in June 2014 at the Sheffield DocFest. It was also screened in Oslo, and Jerusalem before being shown on the BBC's Arena series in July and at Telluride in August. In September, it was screened at the Toronto and Calgary International Film Festivals, and the New York Film Festival. It aired on HBO on September 29, 2014. |
Scorsese directed the pilot for Vinyl written by Terence Winter and George Mastras, with Mick Jagger producing and Mastras as showrunner. The series stars Bobby Cannavale as Richie Finestra, founder and president of a top-tier record label, set in 1970s New York City's drug-and sex-fueled music business as punk and disco were breaking out, all told through the eyes of Finestra trying to resurrect his label and find the next new sound. Filming began on July 25, 2014. Co-stars include Ray Romano, Olivia Wilde, Juno Temple, Andrew Dice Clay, Ato Essandoh, Max Casella, and James Jagger. On December 2, 2014, Vinyl was picked up by HBO. The series lasted one season. Scorsese has acted as executive producer of several indie films, like the 2014 The Third Side of the River (directed by his protege Celina Murga), another 2014 film Revenge of the Green Dragons (co-directed by Andrew Lau, whose film Infernal Affairs inspired The Departed), as well as Bleed for This and Free Fire. |
Scorsese directed The Audition, a short film that also served as a promotional piece for casinos Studio City in Macau and City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. The short brought together Scorsese's long-time muses Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for the first time under his direction. The short film featured the two actors, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, competing for a role in Scorsese's next film. It was Scorsese's first collaboration with De Niro in two decades. The film premiered in October 2015 in conjunction with the grand opening of Studio City. |
2016–present |
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Scorsese had long anticipated filming an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's novel Silence, a drama about the lives of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th century. He had originally planned Silence as his next project following Shutter Island. On April 19, 2013, financing was secured for Silence by Emmett/Furla Films, and filming began in January 2015. By November 2016, the film had completed post-production. It was written by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the novel, and stars Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver. The film was released on December 23, 2016, to positive reviews from critics. Scorsese was recognized as an Italian citizen by jus sanguinis in 2018. |
On January 10, 2019, Variety's Chris Willman reported that Scorsese's long-anticipated documentary of Bob Dylan's 1975 tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue, would be released by Netflix: "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, Rolling Thunder is a one of a kind experience, from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese." On April 25, 2019, it was announced that the documentary would be released on Netflix on June 12, 2019, with a concurrent theatrical engagement in twenty American, European, and Australian cities the night before, and an extended theatrical schedule in Los Angeles and New York so that the film will qualify for award consideration. After years of development, principal photography on Scorsese's crime film The Irishman, based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, began in August 2017, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. The film had its world premiere at the 57th New York Film Festival on September 27, 2019. It received a limited theatrical release on November 1, 2019, followed by digital streaming on November 27, 2019, on Netflix. In January 2020, The Irishman received ten Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Pacino and Pesci. |
On December 29, 2020, the trailer for Scorsese's Netflix documentary series Pretend It's a City was released. The series features Fran Lebowitz and Scorsese as they delve into her personal beliefs and thoughts on New York City. The project was released January 8, 2021, on Netflix. This is Scorsese's second documentary featuring Lebowitz, the first being Public Speaking (2010), which was released on HBO. In October 2022, Scorsese and David Tedeschi premiered their collaborative film Personality Crisis: One Night Only, at the New York Film Festival. The film is a documentary about David Johansen, featuring both contemporary concert footage shot for the project as well as archival footage. |
In July 2019, Scorsese started scouting locations in preparation for the 2020 filming of his next film Killers of the Flower Moon, a film adaptation of the book of the same name by David Grann. Scorsese would team up with Leonardo DiCaprio for the sixth time and Robert De Niro for the tenth time. In December 2019, Scorsese's frequent cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto confirmed that Flower Moon was gearing up to start principal photography in March 2020, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020 Scorsese was hounored with Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award. In April 2020, it was announced that filming for Killers of the Flower Moon had been postponed indefinitely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that the potential cost of the film had ballooned to $200 million, and that Scorsese was in talks with Netflix or Apple to produce and distribute, with Paramount Pictures involved as a partner. On May 27, 2020, Apple bought the production and distribution rights to the film, which was released theatrically by Paramount and streamed on Apple TV+. Principal photography commenced in April 2021. It premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023, receiving a nine-minute standing ovation and was released theatrically on October 20, 2023. On May 16, 2023, while promoting Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese spoke about his eagerness to continue working, stating: "I'm old. I read stuff. I see things. I want to tell stories, and there's no more time." It was nominated for ten Oscars, and seven Golden Globes, winning one for Best Actress in a Drama Lily Gladstone. That same year, he directed a commercial for Bleu de Chanel starring Timothée Chalamet. |
In 2024, Scorsese narrated the documentary film Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger directed by David Hinton. Guy Lodge of Variety wrote: "Scorsese may not have directed this engaging tour through a vital filmography, but he narrates with palpable, personal devotion to his subject." The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival where it was picked up for distribution by MUBI. |
Upcoming projects |
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In November 2021, Scorsese was set to direct a biopic feature about rock band the Grateful Dead for Apple Studios featuring Jonah Hill. In July 2022, it was announced Scorsese would direct an adaptation of David Grann's non-fiction novel The Wager for Apple Studios, reteaming once again with DiCaprio. In May 2023, after meeting with Pope Francis, Scorsese said he was considering writing and directing a new film about Jesus. More details were revealed in January 2024, revealing that it would likely be Scorsese's next film and that he had co-written it with Kent Jones, based on the Shūsaku Endō novel A Life of Jesus. In 2023, during an interview with GQ, it was revealed that Scorsese was working on an adaptation of Marilynne Robinson's Home with Todd Field and Jones. It was reported in February 2025 that Scorsese would be directing a mob film set in Hawaii, starring and being co-produced by Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt. Johnson and Blunt pitched the plot to Scorsese and DiCaprio, which was described as being "a cross between Goodfellas and The Departed", and Nick Bilton was hired as a screenwriter. In March 2025, it was announced that he would be adapting Robinson's Home for Apple TV+ with DiCaprio starring. On September 18, 2025, it was announced that Scorsese would direct an adaptation of the Peter Cameron novel What Happens At Night as his next film, with DiCaprio set to star alongside Jennifer Lawrence and a planned production start in January 2026. |
Filmmaking style and technique |
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Several recurring filmmaking techniques are identifiable in many of Scorsese's films. He has established a filmmaking history which involves repeat collaborations with actors, screenwriters, film editors, and cinematographers, sometimes extending over several decades, such as that with recurring cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, and Rodrigo Prieto. |
Slow motion and freeze frame |
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Scorsese is known for his frequent use of slow motion, for example, in Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) and Mean Streets (1973). He is also known for using freeze frames, such as: in the opening credits of The King of Comedy (1983), throughout Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006), and in The Irishman (2019). His blonde leading ladies are usually seen through the eyes of the protagonist as angelic and ethereal; they wear white in their first scene and are photographed in slow motion—Cybill Shepherd in Taxi Driver; Cathy Moriarty's white bikini in Raging Bull; Sharon Stone's white minidress in Casino. This may be a nod to director Alfred Hitchcock. |
Scorsese often uses long tracking shots, as seen in Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and Hugo. MOS sequences set to popular music or voice-over are regularly seen in his films, often involving aggressive camera movement or rapid editing. Scorsese sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to 1920s silent film cinema (as scenes at the time sometimes used this transition). This effect can be seen in Casino (it is used on Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci), Life Lessons, The Departed (on Matt Damon), and Hugo. Some of his films include references/allusions to Westerns, particularly Rio Bravo, The Great Train Robbery, Shane, The Searchers, and The Oklahoma Kid. Slow motion flashbulbs and accented camera/flash/shutter sounds are often used, as is the song "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones heard in several of Scorsese's films: Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed. |
Cameo appearances |
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Scorsese usually has a quick cameo in his films (Who's That Knocking at My Door, Boxcar Bertha, Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Last Temptation of Christ (albeit hidden under a hood), The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, Hugo, Killers of the Flower Moon), he is also known to contribute his voice to a film without appearing on screen (e.g. as in The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street). In The Age of Innocence, for example, he appears in the non-speaking role of a large format portrait photographer in one of the passing scenes of the film. He provides the opening voice-over narration in Mean Streets and The Color of Money; plays the off-screen dressing room attendant in the final scene of Raging Bull, and provides the voice of the unseen ambulance dispatcher in Bringing Out the Dead. He also appears as the director of fictional newly formed Vatican Television in the Italian comedy In the Pope's Eye and played himself in the first episode of the TV series The Studio. |
Religious guilt |
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