ARTNEWSPRESS: Well, it looks like director Martin Scorsese may be done making movies. During a recent interview with The Guardian, the filmmaker revealed that The Irishman could very well be his last film, and he’s not kidding. He explains that due to all the superhero and comic book films flooding the market, there’s no more room for the kind of films that he makes.
“Obviously, we have been discussing this a lot, that theatres have been commandeered by superhero films – you know, just people flying around and banging and crashing, which is fine if you want to see it. It’s just that there’s no room for another kind of picture. I don’t know how many more I can make – maybe this is it. The last one. So the idea was to at least get it made and maybe show it for one day at the NFT, maybe one day at the Cinémathèque in Paris. I’m not kidding.
“We are in a situation now where the theatres are only showing the latest superhero films. You have 12 screens – and 11 are the superhero film. You enjoy superhero films, fine, but you need 11 screens? It’s crazy for a picture like, you know, Lady Bird or The Souvenir. Those films may not necessarily be hugely commercial, but there are films that are modest and genuine and find a large audience. Just because a film is commercial doesn’t mean it can’t be art. What has consumed the theatres is product. A product is to be consumed and thrown away. Look at a commercial film like Singin’ in the Rain. You can watch it again and again. So the question is: how are we going to protect the art form?
“Now, you don’t have to like the picture, but you couldn’t get The Aviator made today. You could not get Shutter Island made today, even with me and Leo [DiCaprio]. The Departed got made despite itself – the star power helped. We realised when we were taking this project around that the doors are closing. So what’s going on? I looked over at the theatres right down the block – 10 screens showing the same picture.
“People comment that we’ve only shown this film in theatres for four weeks. We tried to get more, but the theatre owners and Netflix couldn’t come to terms. But you know, I’ve had pictures play only one week and get thrown out. In the US, The King of Comedy closed in a week. That film was ignored for 10 years.”
It’s no secret that Scorsese isn’t a fan of comic book movies and now he’s using them as an excuse to retire. While I agree with some of what he’s saying here, I also think that there is room for his films. He’s Martin “freakin’ Scorsese! The guy is a master storyteller and while I don’t think The Irishman was his best work, I’d still love to see him make more films. I think he could still get his films made today because most of them have modest budgets. The Irishman is the exception. Just because I enjoy comic book movies, doesn’t mean I don’t want to see and enjoy other films. When talking about the road The Irishman has been on, Scorsese says:
“My main concern was that it would be OK for the actors, that the Academy would accept it. Not for me, not for the film. I know that I’m at the end of a long, long ride. The main thing is to get the film made and to embrace this new world of how these pictures are going to be seen.”
Scorsese put his heart and soul into The Irishman and he managed to get a superhero movie sized budget to make it. The movie cost $140 million to make and Netflix gave him the money to do it. Maybe making this movie just wiped him out. I don’t know, but I hope it’s not his last movie. I hope he doesn’t retire. But at 77 years old and the why the industry is changing, I can see why he is considering it.
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Joey Paur
