The Scorsese Picture

Fülszöveg

Written with the full cooperation of Martin 11 Scorsese and illustrated with unpublished \}{j photographs and production stills from his private archives, The Scorsese Picture is the most elegant and comprehensive portrait of the work and life of America's greatest contemporary film director.
Martin Scorsese has been a singular figure on the American film scene. Much has been made of his Italian-American background, his initial desire to become a priest, and his rapt devotion to the movies. But precious little has been written to explain how this background actually had an impact upon the style and content of his films and the progression of his career.
In The Scorsese Picture, David Ehrenstein uses his considerable gifts as film historian and critic to illuminate those factors that contribute to making Scorsese's pictures narratively layered, visually immediate, and morally complex. Each chapter penetrates—with detailed commentary by Scorsese himself—various dimensions of the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Written with the full cooperation of Martin 11 Scorsese and illustrated with unpublished \}{j photographs and production stills from his private archives, The Scorsese Picture is the most elegant and comprehensive portrait of the work and life of America's greatest contemporary film director.
Martin Scorsese has been a singular figure on the American film scene. Much has been made of his Italian-American background, his initial desire to become a priest, and his rapt devotion to the movies. But precious little has been written to explain how this background actually had an impact upon the style and content of his films and the progression of his career.
In The Scorsese Picture, David Ehrenstein uses his considerable gifts as film historian and critic to illuminate those factors that contribute to making Scorsese's pictures narratively layered, visually immediate, and morally complex. Each chapter penetrates—with detailed commentary by Scorsese himself—various dimensions of the filmmaker's unique working methods. His technical style is observed, for example, in the use of the zoom-and-pan in his very first feature Who's That Knocking at My Door? This kind of shot both approximates the motion of the eyes and allows the introduction of two important characters at the same time. The dynamic editing of his boxing classic Raging Bull and the severe visual stylization of The King of Comedy, which assault standard moviegoer expectations, are also discussed.
Ehrenstein offers brilliant critical analyses of all the films and incisively examines the subject matter and characters that fascinate Scorsese. Though Scorsese's pictures often show socially marginal people in situations that are out-of-the-ordinary—from Taxi Driver's psychopathic Travis Bickle to Raging Bull's masochistic and misogynistic Jake LaMotta—Ehrenstein shows how the director makes the lives of such unlikely antiheroes touching and compelling.
Ehrenstein reviews Scorsese's entire filmmaking life from his earliest influences and his first productions through Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ, New York, New York, up to
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his most recent film, The Age of Innocence, based on Edith Wharton's novel. The book also includes the most complete history and filmography of Scorsese's films as well as the commercial productions he has been involved with, and information on films he planned but never made.
As artful as its subject matter, The Scorsese Picture will take its place among the best books on film.
MARK GELLER
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David Ehrenstein is the film critic for The Advocate. He has written extensively for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Son Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Reader and such publications as Daily Variety, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, the Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. He is the author of Film: The Front Line and coauthor of Rock on Film. He lives in Los Angeles. Vissza