Martin Scorsese has urged young film-makers to use new technology for “serious” work, as he emphasised the importance of cinema over content.
Speaking at a Screen Talk at the BFI London film festival hosted by the British film-maker Edgar Wright, Scorsese – arguably America’s highest status film director – said the industry’s “period of reinventing” didn’t have to spell the end of auteur-led film-making.
“I didn’t want to be the last line of defence,” he joked when Wright asked him about becoming somewhat of a spokesperson for the current state of cinema.
The 80-year-old has previously criticised what he sees as “theme park films” dominating the film landscape – including MCU franchise movies.
“I really mean this – I don’t know where cinema is going to go,” he said. “Why does it have to be the same as it was for the past 90-100 years? It doesn’t. Do we prefer cinema from the last 90-100 years? I do, but I’m old.
“Younger people are going to see the world around them in a different way. What does one shot mean now? I don’t know any more. I don’t think it means anything. You all are in the process of a period of reinventing it. It’s quite an extraordinary time, and a lot of it is due to technology.”
Scorsese, whose new film Killers of the Flower Moon received its UK premiere at the festival on Saturday, said there was “so much freedom now” that film-makers ought to “rethink what you want to say and how you want to say it.
“Ideally, I hope – I hesitate to use the word – ‘serious’ film could still be made with this new technology and this new world we’re a part of.”
Recalling his days going to cinemas as a child, Scorsese said the experience of seeing a film with a lot of people was still “really key”. “I always ask the theatre owners to create a space where younger people would say, ‘We want to see this new film’, which is not a franchise film, in a theatre and share with everybody around them … But I’m not sure that can be easily achieved at this point”.
Asked by Wright about how he defined content, the director, who has been the recipient of numerous accolades including an Oscar, four Baftas, three Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Grammy, said content was “something you eat and throw away”.
“It’s like candy,” he added. “I like having the TV on all the time … I have the sound down. That’s content. It’s almost like radio before television, it’s a voice in the background. But if you want to have an experience that can enrich your life it’s different.”
The director was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed-out Royal Festival Hall. He said Killers of the Flower Moon, which is about the real-life murders of scores of Osage tribal members in 1920s Oklahoma, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, was about a chapter of history that was covered up.
He also discussed some of his greatest hits, including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Departed, and shared anecdotes from his illustrious career.
Without naming him, Scorsese compared the characters in The Wolf of Wall Street to Donald Trump. “They elected him!” he said. “It’s about kill, go get the money, do anything to win.”
