Martin Scorsese - Directors Study

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Martin Scorsese -
Martin Scorsese is a well known film director who has directed a large number of thriller films such as Shutter Island, Gangs of New York and The Departed. Leonardo DiCaprio is in a large number of his films.

Martin Scorsese was born on 17th November 1942 in New York City but was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy. This neighborhood provided a lot of inspiration for his future films. He has a B.S degree in Film Communications. His first film that he directed was called 'Who's That Knocking at My Door'; which he directed in 1967. Scorsese was paired with actor, Robert De Niro; who he often works with. He directed 'Raging Bull' in 1980 which De Niro won an oscar for; this film won eight academy award nominations.

He then went on to direct many other inspirational films such as 'Goodfellas (1990)', 'The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)' and 'The Colour of Money (1986)'. He has won many nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. He is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema, and is looked up to and admired by many other filmmakers.

The highest grossing film that Scorsese has directed is 'Shutter Island', a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, for DiCaprio; this was the fourth time the pair had reunited for a film. The film grossed £128 million in theatre release and has been Scorsese's most successful film to date. The film features a detective who is given an investigation into the escape of a patient at a mental institution. It is cleverly made in the way that the ending is the complete opposite to what the audience will initially think will happen, confusing them and making them really think about what they have just watched.

Scorsese has made many other successful films such as Hugo, The Aviator and Casino, many of his films featuring once collaborated with actors. As well as feature films, he has directed many documentary films such as 'Living In a Material World', which is about the life of Beatles member; George Harrison. This film won awards such as Outstanding Cinematography, Picture Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Scorsese has directed many other film documentary, such as 'No Direction Home' and 'Shine a Light'.

In 2007. Scorsese was named in the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World for Time's Magazine and again in 2007; was named as the second greatest director of all time in a poll for Total Film Magazine.

Scorsese has formed many collaborations with different actors such as Robert Di Nero, Leonardo DiCaprio, Victor Argo, and Joe Pesci; all of whom have been in at least three of Scorsese's films.

Many of the actors who Scorsese has collaborated with have won many awards for their acting in his films.

The public mainly know Scorsese for his many director trademarks. For example, he frequently uses slow motion in his films, many examples are seen throughout 'Goodfellas' and 'The Departed'. There is also a frequent use of blonde women in many of his films, and this is thought to be a nod towards Alfred Hitchcock's work and gives the impression of an innocent and angelic personality. He also uses long tracking shots in large amounts of his work; particularly in 'Gangs of New York'. He also makes very quick cameos into his films, where a very short and almost unnoticeable clip is seen of him; these can be seen in 'Taxi Driver', 'Hugo', 'After Hours' and many more. Lastly, Scorsese tends to use the same music in a lot of his films; in particular 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones, is repetitive and frequently used. This music can be heard in 'The Departed', 'Casino', and 'Goodfellas'.

Finally, Scorsese's next upcoming movie is called 'The Wolf of Wall Street', which features yet another collaboration between Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. This is set to be released in November 2013.

Here is a list of all films directed by Martin Scorsese - 

• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• New York, New York (1977)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• The King of Comedy (1983)
• After Hours (1985)
• The Colour of Money (1986)
• The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Cape Fear (1991)
• The Age of Innocence (1993)
• Casino (1995)
• Kundun (1997)
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• The Aviator (2004)
• The Departed (2006)
• Shutter Island (2010)
• Hugo (2011)

Scorsese has also done a fair share of acting and acting the voices of different animated characters; such as Sykes in Shark Tale and Dreams, where he played Vincent Van Gogh and Guilty by Suspicion where he worked along Robert Di Nero again and played Joe Lesser.