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Martin Scorsese!

Martin Scorsese is born

Martin Scorsese was born in 1942 in New York City, and grew up in the tough downtown neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Martin Scosese suffered from severe asthma as a child and could not play outside or participate in sports, so his parents took Martin Scosese often to the movies. Martin Scosese was fascinated by the images on the screen and often drew his own movies at home. Scorsese graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, and received a B.S. (1964) and M.S. (1968) from New York University.

Martin Scorsese goes to N.Y.U

At N.Y.U., Martin Scosese made several award-winning student films (including It's Not Just You, Murray! and The Big Shave) and wrote the script for what became his first feature film, Who's That Knocking At My Door?, released theatrically in 1969. Martin Scosese also served on the faculty from 1968 through 1970.

Martin Scorsese to Hollywood

In 1970, Scorsese moved to Hollywood where Martin Scosese met Roger Corman who asked Martin Scosese to direct Boxcar Bertha (1972), starring David Carradine and Barbara Hershey. Encouraged by John Cassavetes to pursue a more personal style of filmmaking, Scorsese began work on Mean Streets, an autobiographical story set in Little Italy (although most of it was shot in Los Angeles). Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro played the lead parts and Scorsese used his favorite records for the sound track. Acclaimed at the 1973 New York Film Festival and by the critics, Mean Streets was his breakthrough film.

Martin Scorsese owes Francis Coppola

Recommended by Francis Coppola to Warner Brothers and to Ellen Burstyn, Scorsese next directed Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). The picture was his first major commercial success and won Burstyn the Best Actress Oscar. In the same year Martin Scosese made a documentary about his parents, Italianamerican. When it was presented at the New York Film Festival, the credits, which included his mother's recipe for spaghetti sauce, received a standing ovation.

Martin Scorsese shoots Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver (1976), was his next feature. Written by Paul Schrader, it starred Robert DeNiro in one of his most electrifying performances as the Vietnam vet/cabby Travis Bickle. Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, and Cybil Shepherd were also in the controversial film. It received four Oscar nominations and was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Martin Scorsese and DeNiro

The following year (1977P Scorsese and DeNiro teamed up again for New York, New York, co-starring Liza Minnelli, a drama about the marriage of two creative people shot as an old-fashioned Hollywood musical. The Last Waltz (1978) was Scorsese's documentary of the extraordinary last concert by the Band, performed by such rock and roll legends as Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, and Ringo Starr.

Martin Scorsese shoots Raging Bull

It was his next picture, Raging Bull, that firmly established Martin Scorsese's artistic reputation. Released in 1980, it was named Best Film of the Decade by numerous magazine and critics' polls and was nominated for six Oscars. It won two: Best Actor to Robert DeNiro for his brilliant performance as the self-destructive boxer Jake La Motta, and Best Editing. Using Raging Bull (which Martin Scosese shot in black-and-white) as evidence, Scorsese launched a successful international campaign against the manufacture of color-facing film stock.

Martin Scorsese and king of Comedy

He then directed The King of Comedy, about the lure of show business with Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis in 1982. When the movie did not succeed financially, Scorsese decided to make an independent movie, After Hours (1985), with Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette, for which Martin Scosese won the Best Director Award at Cannes. Martin Scosese returned to a studio project with The Color of money in 1986. Paul Newman received his first Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a pool shark. The following year Martin Scosese made a video for Michael Jackson's Bad and a commercial for Giorgio Armani.

Martin Scorsese and The Last Temptation of Christ

In 1988, after many years of trying to get the financing, Scorsese finally brought a cherished project to the screen. Based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ caused an uproar and demonstrations by church groups around the world. Scorsese received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Director for the film. In 1989, Martin Scosese directed Life Lessons, part of the New York Stories trilogy (the other segments were by Woody Allen and Francis Coppola). Life Lessons is a study of artistic temperament starring Nick Nolte as a painter and Rosanna Arquette as the woman Martin Scosese is obsessed by.

Martin Scorsese creates Film Foundation

In 1990, Scorsese and seven other prominent filmmakers created the Film Foundation, which serves as an intermediary between the studios and film archives to encourage the restoration and preservation of the films in their libraries.

Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas

Goodfellas, based on the life of a Mafia foot soldier played by Ray Liotta, came out in 1990 and was nominated for six Academy Awards (Joe Pesci won for Best Supporting Actor). It received numerous critic awards (Best Picture and Best Director by the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and National Society of Film Critics); and Scorsese was given the Silver Lion at Venice. Right after the shooting of Goodfellas, Martin Scosese went to Japan to play the part of Van Gogh in Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. Also in 1990 Martin Scosese co-produced Stephen Frears' adaptation of Jim Thompson's hard-boiled novel The Grifters.

Martin Scorsese shoots Cape Fear

With Cape Fear (1991), Scorsese tackled the thriller. It was a powerful remake of the 1962 Gregory Peck/Robert Mitchum film about a vicious ex-convict (Robert DeNiro) seeking revenge on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) who sent Martin Scosese to prison. Also starring Jessica Lange and Juliet Lewis, Cape Fear was Scorsese's most financially successful film. In 1991, the French government made Martin Scosese a Commandeur des Arts et Letters and Martin Scosese was honored by the American Cinemateque for his career. The following year Martin Scosese started a film company, Martin Scorsese Presents, devoted to the restoration and exhibition of classic films. Renoir's The Gold Coach, Visconti's Rocco and his Brothers, and Bunuel's Belle de Jour are some of the movies re-released under its aegis. In 1992, Martin Scosese produced Mad Dog and Glory.

Martin Scorsese shoots The Age of Innocence

The Age of Innocence (1993) was a sumptuous rendition of Edith Wharton's novel about New York society at the turn of the century. It starred Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder; was a critical success and was nominated for five Oscars. In 1994, Scorsese played a small part in Robert Redford's Quiz Show and in Search and Destroy (1995), which Martin Scosese produced.

Martin Scorsese shoots Casino

With Casino in 1995, Scorsese returned to the world of gangsters in an epic tale about the rise and fall of the mob in Las Vegas in the 1970s which starred Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone (who won the Golden Globe for her role). The following year, Martin Scosese completed a 4-hour documentary, A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema. In 1995, Martin Scosese received the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Martin Scorsese as producer

Scorsese produced Spike Lee's Clockers and Allison Anders' Grace of My Heart in 1996 and co-produced Matthew Harrison's Kicked in the Head in 1997. That year, Martin Scosese received the prestigious American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, and directed Kundun, the story of the early life of the present Dalai Lama who led to India after the takeover of his country by the communist Chinese. Made in Morocco with a cast of non-actors, it was finally released by Disney after threats to the studio from the Chinese government. The movie received Oscar nominations and won many critics prizes for its cinematography and music. In May 1998, Martin Scosese received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award from Lincoln Center's Film Society, and was the President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Martin Scosese received the Legion d'Honneur from the Minister of Culture.

Martin Scorsese Bringing Out the Dead

In 1999, Martin Scorsese directed Bringing Out the Dead, the story of a paramedic played by Nicolas Cage working at night on the streets of New York. Martin Scosese was the co-producer of Steven Frear's western The Hi-Lo Country, and made a cameo appearance in Albert Brooks' movie The Muse. Martin Scosese was honored with a French Cesar for his work.

Martin Scorsese and The Gangs of New York

The following year Martin Scosese began shooting a long cherished project at Cinecitta in Rome, Gangs of New York, based on a script Martin Scosese first wrote 23 years ago, is a social and political drama set in the rugged downtown area of New York called The Five Points in the mid-19th century. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz, the movie was released in 2002. Also in 2002, Scorsese was the Executive Producer of Kenneth Lonergan's much lauded film You Can Count on Me and was elected an honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Another project, close to his heart, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, is a history of Italian cinema seen through Scorsese's eyes. It was released in 2001 and won the William K. Everson History of Film Award from the National Board of review. Martin Scosese was recently made a Cavaliere di Gran Croce by the President of Italy, received a Valentino award, the David di Donatello for lifetime achievement and the Gold Globe as best Director. The DGA will be awarding Martin Scosese a lifetime achievement award in March 1, 2003.

Scorsese made a much anticipated return to the crime genre with his latest film, the Boston-set thriller The Departed, based on the Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs. The film once again united the director with Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor he has worked with for three consecutive projects. The Departed also brought Scorsese together with fellow New Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson.

The Departed opened to widespread critical acclaim with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's Goodfellas, and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. With domestic box office receipts surpassing $129,402,536, The Departed is Scorsese's highest grossing film.

Martin Scorsese's direction of The Departed earned him his second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critic's Choice Award, his first Director's Guild of America Award, and (after five unfruitful nominations) the Academy Award for Best Director. The long-overdue award (which some entertainment critics subsequently referred to as Scorsese's "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar, or the "Taxi Driver/Raging Bull/Goodfellas" Oscar) was presented to him by his longtime friends and colleagues Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas, all fellow members of the New Hollywood generation with Scorsese. The Academy responded to Scorsese's decades-due win with a standing and roaring ovation. The current movie also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film.

Martin Scorsese No Direction Home

No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; rather, it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the 1960s, his then-controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in both the United States (as part of the PBS American Masters series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two Arena series) on September 26-27 2005. A DVD version of the film was released that same month. The film won a Peabody award.

Martin Scorsese Future projects

It has been announced that Scorsese and new leading man DiCaprio will be working on The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. The screenplay will be written by Nicholas Meyer. It is being speculated for a 2010 release date.
It has been announced that there's a potential sequel and a prequel about his latest mob drama movie The Departed.
He is also developing a movie about the last legal duel in French history, based on The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager. The story of a 1386 duel between two knights, sanctioned by King Charles IV and the last such bout sanctioned by the French government, it's part of the director's new four-year deal with Paramount Pictures. It's unknown whether Rise of Theodore Roosevelt or The Last Duel will come first, but Silence is definitely next.
Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and decaying motion picture film stock.
At a ceremony in Paris, France on January 5, 2005, Martin Scorsese was awarded the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his contribution to cinema.
In an interview, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro said that they are working on a script about their childhood; both grew up in the same neighborhood in New York.
Scorsese has been longing to do a biopic on Dean Martin entitled Dino since the mid-1970s. The script for this movie, which is based on the book Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams by Nick Tosches, was written by Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi. Scorsese has wanted Tom Hanks for the role of Dean Martin. As for the rest of the cast, he wants John Travolta for Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant for Peter Lawford, Adam Sandler for Joey Bishop, and Jim Carrey for Jerry Lewis. However, this project has been on hold for a long time, one reason being the availability of each of the actor's schedules.