Scorsese on Scorsese

In the book Scorsese on Scorsese, Marin Scorsese recounts his early life in New York and how he began his career in film making.  He tells of his quest to get funding for his films, his time as a film student and tutor and of the environment he grew up in and the influence that has had on his films.  He charts the problems and revisions that were made to create 'Mean Streets' and tells of the films and film makers that were influential to him.

One paragraph that I found particularly interesting was the influence that French New Wave and Italian art cinema had on him during his time as a film student, and particularly how the different style of editing changed his outlook on editing films.

Scorsese is also very honest about his admiration for other film makers and their style and works.  When discussing, in the book, how he set about planning and making his films he will acknowledge where certain styles or camera moves were based on other works that he had seen.  For example, in his accountof filming Taxi Driver Scorsese says that he looked to the works of Hitchcock ('The Wrong Man' for the moves of the characters in the insurance office scene), Jack Hazan for the head on framing that Hazan applied in his ocumentary about David Hockney 'A Bigger Splash') and Francesco Rosi's 'Salvatore Giuliano' to capture the feeling of paranoia that he wanted to create, which is a huge element of Taxi Driver.

I was really pleased that he acknowledged 'A Bigger Splash' as that is high on my list of favourite films but seems to get overlooked, and rarely mentioned.  I think it is a beautifully filmed film where every frame is reminiscent of, or indeed a direct recreation of Hockney's paintings at the time, particularly the swimming pool paintings with his amazing shade of blue.  I am a huge fan of David Hockney's work, admiring his use of scale and colour and his research and experiments with art techniques: ranging from his study of the use of the camera obscura in classical art to his recent iPad 'paintings'.  I think that 'A Bigger Splash' was a fitting, respectful and interesting documentary.

I found this intriguing review of 'A Bigger Splash' online which compares the recreated documentary style of 'A Bigger Splash' to The Only Way is Essex!  (I'm not wholly convinced as I have never been able to watch a single episode of TOWIE for more than about four minutes without storming off in a rant demanding a reduction in my licence fee and questioning where humanity's intelligence has gone.)  However, I suppose there is a vague similarity in the style given that the scenes were recreated, and the characters act out versions of themselves.  But I will be heartbroken if that is how 'A Bigger Splash' is remembered: as an early docu-soap.       

In both my editing sessions and on the experimental strand that I am studying we have been discussing the use of sound in film.  In Scorsese on Scorsese, Martin Scorsese shows how he considers the use of sound within his films.  He tells of the people that he has worked with on sound design for his films and shares some of the problems that they have encountered.  When discussing the sound design for 'Raging Bull' he tells how intricate the sound would need to be and how Frank Warner was employed to create the sound effects (and how he would keep all of his techniques secret and actually destroyed them after the film was completed).  Scorsese then goes on to talk about the decision to, at certain points, drop the sound out of the film all together, and how that would give a greater impact to the scene as the sound would come back in on the punch.

Throughout the book Scorsese not only recalls his planning and execution of each film project but also shares techniques that he uses that I think are really helpful.  For instance, to visualise the production for his film 'Taxi Driver' (because he was on such a tight budget) Scorsese had the whole film drawn out on storyboards "even down to medium close ups of people talking, so that everything would connect".

For 'Raging Bull' Scorsese shot scenes of Robert de Niro training in the gym before shooting of the main picture and in reviewing these off screen moments fellow director Michael Powell pointed out to Scorsese that the use of the red gloves wouldn't work.

(This is a link to an article from the Guardian Online in which Scorsese discusses his friendship and collaboration with Michael Powell.)