What We're Reading: Jan

Conversations with Scorsese by Richard Schickel with Martin Scorsese

It’s a joy to read but hard to put a label on Conversations with Scorsese. It’s an autobiographical study of director (Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed) Martin Scorsese’s life. It's also his family history (with photographs), and a study of Italian culture - specifically his neighborhood in New York. These personal revelations are interwoven with Scorcese's deep knowledge of American and foreign film classics and an analysis of his style and technique that he's applied to his own cinema creations. As a sickly youngster Scorsese saw movies of all kinds and can today name many director's works that have influenced his own. His youthful interest in film was technical too. He studied how camera angles could make the viewer “feel” differently about a film and would draw out his own imaginary film sets - much as he still draws them today. This wealth of Scorsese information is mined by the wonderfully informed interview style of esteemed film critic Richard Schickel. Schickel met the director at the beginning of his career and has watched and critiqued his creations through the years. The book is a one-to-one discussion between two film devotees and covers film history as well as the Scorsese film catalog.