We are November 17th, which means Martin Scorsese turned 80 today. Yeah, I know, blows your mind when you think about it. It feels like it was just yesterday that he was in his 50s and entering his big-studio movie phase with “Gangs of New York”.
The Guardian called him the “greatest director alive.” A bold statement, when bestowed on, really, any filmmaker. Maybe Scorsese could, in fact, deserve that title. Variety’s Clayton Davis was given the task of ranking all of Scorsese’s films. Why? The resulting list is definitely a peculiar one.
Ballsy move putting “Silence” at #1. I do think it’s a very good film, encapsulating many of Scorsese’s past and present obsessions. Rodrigo Prieto’s photography is also stunning. Anything to boost this film is fine by me. So, let’s just move on to the others …
“Casino” at #17 is too low. Ditto “After Hours” at #18. It’s also damn-near sacrilege for Clayton to think “Mean Streets” is only the 19th best movie of Scorsese’s career. Good God.
From my own perspective, the 10 stone-cold classics of Marty’s career are “Goodfellas,” “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver,” “Mean Streets,” “Casino,” “The King of Comedy,” “After Hours,” “The Departed,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.