Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was born in Flushing, New York in 1942. A quiet child with a strong case of asthma, Scorsese spent much of his young life alone— in the movie theater or watching movies on television. After attending high school in the Bronx he spent a year in the seminary before enrolling at New York University. The early 1960s was a time of renewed interest in American film, and he found himself drawn to NYU’s film school, where the emerging French and Italian New Wave and independent filmmakers such as John Cassavetes had a profound influence on him.

Soon after graduating he became a film instructor at NYU and made commercials in both England and the United States. He also finished his first full-length feature in 1968, WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? He followed this with a number of hard-hitting films throughout the 1970s. His style combined a rough and gritty attention to the everyday life of the urban jungle with a monumental visual sensibility. In one of his most famous films, TAXI DRIVER (1976), Scorsese focused on the particulars of an individual and his obsessions. Starring Robert DeNiro (with whom Scorsese has had one of the most celebrated collaborative relationships in American cinema), TAXI DRIVER elevates the obscure specifics of a disturbed life with the greatest drama.

With two later films, RAGING BULL (1980) and THE KING OF COMEDY (1983) (both starring De Niro), Scorsese focused on a theme that has permeated nearly every one of his movies—the plight of the desperate and out-of-control individual. Often unsympathetic, his characters display a crazed violence that mimics the repressive social structures in which they live. With the protagonist in RAGING BULL we find a fighter possessed with anger both in and out of the ring, while in THE KING OF COMEDY we find one overwhelmed by the impossibility of breaking into the entertainment industry. Both are telling social commentaries and engaging films.

Emotionally precise and visually overpowering, Scorsese creates lush landscapes in which every detail seems to pulse with energy. In his 1988 masterpiece THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, Scorsese used this elevation of the particular to present both Jesus and everything around him with a fullness required by such a loaded topic. The controversial nature of the film and the stunning visual reality it created stirred up Hollywood and met with strong reactions from the general public.

In 1995's CASINO, Scorsese brought together much of the stylistic and theoretical content of his earlier works. The engaging world and controlling power structure of the Mafia (a source repeatedly tread by Scorsese) is brought to life in the loud and visually stunning world of the casino. In tone, style, and content, Scorsese is constantly pushing the boarders of the film, seeing how much we can come to feel about the most foreign and familiar characters. For many Martin Scorsese is the most important living American filmmaker—one whose relentless search for the furthest emotional reaches of his genre have led him to the center of the American psyche.

Again defying categorization, Scorsese turned his attentions to another unlikely subject, the Dalai Lama. "Kundun" (1997) was a biopic as only Scorsese could direct. The story of a proponent of non-violence, it moves the audience into the world of Tibet. Filled with gorgeous saffrons and deep maroons, "Kundun" was a visual and aural feast (the Philip Glass score was among its best components). The sequences covering the Dalai Lama's early life and training were compelling, but the director and screenwriter Melissa Mathison seemed at a loss as how to end their film. Following on the heels of another similar-themed feature (the Brad Pitt vehicle "Seven Years in Tibet"), "Kundun" struggled at the box office despite critical kudos.

Scorsese next directed Nicolas Cage as a fast-living EMT in the morbid, psychotropic drama "Bringing Out the Dead" (1999), which yielded little by way of critical acclaim or box office success. He spent the next few years working on a long-awaited opus, "The Gangs of New York" , the story of the New York immigrant riots of the late 19th century. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis , the movie went through a series of set-backs, budget problems and a year-long release delay as Scorsese reportedly wrangled with Miramax head Harvey Weinstein over various details before its fall 2002 release. "Gangs" was given its due as a mighty achievement, lavishly staged and photographed and featuring a powerhouse performance from Day-Lewis, but while some critics and audiences marveled at the world that the director created, there was some dissatisfaction with the story, which was not as urgent and engrossing as Scorsese's previous top-shelf fare. Nevertheless, with his relationship with Miramax repaired by the time of the film's release, Weinstein began stumping for an Academy Award nomination for the director with one of Weinstein's famously shrewd award campaigns and the results were fruitful: not only did Scorsese take home the Golden Globe award as Best Director of a drama, he also scored an Oscar nomination for "Gangs."

Defying the hype surrounding the difficulties of bringing "Gangs" to the screen, Scorsese readily re-upped with Miramax and re-teamed with DiCaprio for "The Aviator" (2004), a lavish biopic of the legendary billionaire Howard Hughes which DiCaprio had first developed with screenwriter John Logan and director Michael Mann. Feeling a certain kinship with the obsessive lead character and impressed with the way the script zeroed in on a specific era of Hughes' life, from his early days establishing himself as a Hollywood studio head to his bitter battle with the U.S. government over his airline, all set against Hughes' increasingly troubling obsessive compulsive disorder. The director delivered his grandest, most enthralling film since "Casino"—thanks in no small part to his fruitful collaboration with the increasingly impressive DiCaprio—a sumptuous visual feast that captured much of the exotic glamour of old Hollywood and the rest of Hughes' world while also following Scorsese's enduring template of following a character's inevitable descent from a seemingly glamorous height. Powered by Miramax's now legendary promotional muscle, "The Aviator" won the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. It also led the pack with 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, Scorsese's fifth nod in the directing category. Once again, however, the director did not bring home either the DGA honor or the long-awaited Oscar.

In 2006, Scorsese made a triumphant return to form with his next film, “The Departed,” a slick crime thriller loosely based on the excellent Hong Kong actioner “Infernal Affairs” (2002). The film focused on Billy Costigan, a young undercover cop (DiCaprio once again) assigned to infiltrate a mob syndicate ran by deviant gangland chief Frank Costello(Jack Nicholson in his first ever collaboration with Scorsese). As Costigan gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan(Matt Damon a member of the boss’ gang, has managed to infiltrate the Boston police department. Each man becomes consumed by his double life, gathering information for their employers while it becomes clear to both that they’re in danger of being exposed to the enemy—the two moles must race to uncover the identity of the other man before blowing their own cover. Scorsese’s return to the organized crime thriller was hailed by fans and critics alike—he had studiously avoided the genre since “Casino” in order to explore other avenues. This time, however, he chose to eschew his Italian heritage to explore the Irish-run mob in Boston, a slight departure that gave a fresh spin on old territory. Meanwhile, “The Departed” earned huge helpings of critical kudos prior to its early October release, positioning the film for a strong opening weekend.

Away from the director's chair, Scorsese developed a reputation for a willingness to send up his own image, either as a streetwise filmmaker or an anxious, mile-a-minute-speaking auteur with appearances as himself or a parody thereof in such TV projects as "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Saturday Night Live," and "The Sopranos," and on the big-screen in the Albert Brooks comedy "The Muse" (1999) and the CGI-animated underwater opus "Shark Tale" (2004). He also essayed more straight-on dramatic roles in such films as "Yume" (1990), "Guilty By Suspicion" (1991) and "Quiz Show" (1994), and made a point of cameoing, Hitchcock-style, in most of his own films.

Marriages:
Laraine Brennan, married May 15,1965, divorced
Julia Cameron, married December 30, 1975, divorced
Isabella Rossellini, married September 29, 1979, divorced
Barbara De Fina, married February 1985, divorced
Helen Morris, married July 22, 1999