Scorsese interview
Aug 6, 2013 17:38:29 GMT -5
Post by will on Aug 6, 2013 17:38:29 GMT -5
Only posting the relevant bits here, from this interview with the Humanities magazine:
All of it here:
www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/julyaugust/conversation/the-art-martin-scorsese
LEACH: Tip O’Neill used to say that all politics is local, and I think there’s a corollary to that now, which is that all local politics are affected by global events. With international distribution and the rise of more global perspectives, have your movies moved beyond the local?
SCORSESE: No. It seems that, if anything, it’s made me more specific to the places I know. I think in being true to that, we can be more true to human nature. I know now that my movies will be shown around the world. Back around the mid nineties, I didn’t think that, and certainly in the seventies we didn’t think that, absolutely not.
In some movies, the place is much more internal. On this picture, The Wolf of Wall Street, there’s only one scene on Wall Street. They work out of Long Island in the town of Lake Success. What do you really see? You see them. It’s their faces and their behavior.
They could be in this room. They could be in the street. They could be in a restaurant. They could be on a plane. They could be in Geneva, which is one scene. If you can make $21 million in an hour and a half on the phone, you’re not going to be worried about where you are or what the people around you are thinking.
SCORSESE: No. It seems that, if anything, it’s made me more specific to the places I know. I think in being true to that, we can be more true to human nature. I know now that my movies will be shown around the world. Back around the mid nineties, I didn’t think that, and certainly in the seventies we didn’t think that, absolutely not.
In some movies, the place is much more internal. On this picture, The Wolf of Wall Street, there’s only one scene on Wall Street. They work out of Long Island in the town of Lake Success. What do you really see? You see them. It’s their faces and their behavior.
They could be in this room. They could be in the street. They could be in a restaurant. They could be on a plane. They could be in Geneva, which is one scene. If you can make $21 million in an hour and a half on the phone, you’re not going to be worried about where you are or what the people around you are thinking.
LEACH: Is directing a comedy radically different from directing a drama? Do you approach these differently, and do you use different kinds of people, different kinds of actors?
SCORSESE: Well, I’ve been lucky over the years that the actors that I’ve worked with have a great sense of humor, an ironic sense of humor, too. As I say, sometimes it can be so miserable that it’s funny. You’re in a terrible situation. The more you complain, it’s only going to get worse.
[...]
But in the case of The Wolf of Wall Street, the humor comes out of their enjoyment. They ’re doing bad things, and there’s a tension that I hope to get with the audience itself, as they find themselves maybe enjoying some of what these guys are doing and checking themselves for that. What’s in us that makes us enjoy this?
SCORSESE: Well, I’ve been lucky over the years that the actors that I’ve worked with have a great sense of humor, an ironic sense of humor, too. As I say, sometimes it can be so miserable that it’s funny. You’re in a terrible situation. The more you complain, it’s only going to get worse.
[...]
But in the case of The Wolf of Wall Street, the humor comes out of their enjoyment. They ’re doing bad things, and there’s a tension that I hope to get with the audience itself, as they find themselves maybe enjoying some of what these guys are doing and checking themselves for that. What’s in us that makes us enjoy this?
LEACH: As you look back, are you dissatisfied with any of the movies you’ve made?
SCORSESE:
[...]
You think you’re going to capture something, and you try everything. Everything. I mean, how you work with people, how you get them to do something you want or they get you to do something, and then you use it a certain way. What I do with my editor, Thelma, what we do with my producers. You all work it. You work it whether it’s having dinner, whether it’s being somewhere, whether it’s late night phone calls. It’s always work, work, work. It all has to do with creating this “something.”
In the case of this Wolf movie, it’s maybe the frame of mind. At one point his father tells him—Rob Reiner plays his father—he says, you act as if you want something you get it immediately. You have to show some restraint in life. And Leonardo DiCaprio looks at him and says, why should I show restraint? Why? Do you know how much money I make? Now, take that.
LEACH: That’s tough.
SCORSESE: But the point is, at the age of twenty-two years old, twenty-three, why should I show restraint? Let’s get into that mindset and let’s create the world around it, everything, every shot, every piece of music, every line of dialog, every bit of foul language, everything you can think of, and put you in that mindset. And that’s what we’re fighting right now to try to get. Once you do it . . .
SCORSESE:
[...]
You think you’re going to capture something, and you try everything. Everything. I mean, how you work with people, how you get them to do something you want or they get you to do something, and then you use it a certain way. What I do with my editor, Thelma, what we do with my producers. You all work it. You work it whether it’s having dinner, whether it’s being somewhere, whether it’s late night phone calls. It’s always work, work, work. It all has to do with creating this “something.”
In the case of this Wolf movie, it’s maybe the frame of mind. At one point his father tells him—Rob Reiner plays his father—he says, you act as if you want something you get it immediately. You have to show some restraint in life. And Leonardo DiCaprio looks at him and says, why should I show restraint? Why? Do you know how much money I make? Now, take that.
LEACH: That’s tough.
SCORSESE: But the point is, at the age of twenty-two years old, twenty-three, why should I show restraint? Let’s get into that mindset and let’s create the world around it, everything, every shot, every piece of music, every line of dialog, every bit of foul language, everything you can think of, and put you in that mindset. And that’s what we’re fighting right now to try to get. Once you do it . . .
All of it here:
www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/julyaugust/conversation/the-art-martin-scorsese