- Martin Scorsese describes his initial and growing obsession with films from the 1940s and 50s as the art form developed and grew with clips from classics and cult classics.
- Despite its nearly four-hour running time, this is a uniquely personal look at movies from one of the late 20th century's great directors and film historians. The film consists of head & shoulder shots of Scorsese speaking into the camera for a minute or two, followed by 10-15 minutes of film clips with Scorsese voice-over. Scorsese approaches the films in terms of how they affected him as a director foremost and as a storyteller/film fan second. Segments include "The Director as Smuggler," "The Director as Iconoclast", and so on. The Journey begins with silent masters like D.W. Griffith and ends in 1969 - when Scorsese began to make films; as he says in closing, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries."—Fred Goodridge
- This film is divided into 3 parts: Part 1: The Director's Dilemma is about the continuing struggle between directorial vision and Hollywood commerce. Through interviews with Billy Wilder and Frank Capra, Scorsese expresses his idea of "one man, one film" -- the belief that the director should be solely in charge of his movie's destiny. But, not every director was comfortable with Capra's "name above the title" freedom. As Scorsese explains, many directors (like Clarence Brown and Michael Curtiz) managed to thrive within the studio system. And others, like Vincente Minnelli, even needed the collaborative influences around him, especially the producer-director relationship, to develop. The Director as Storyteller in the Western, the Gangster Film and the Musical: Scorsese explores three quintessential American genres: the Western with clips from John Ford directing John Wayne in Stagecoach (1939); the Gangster movie from its early roots in Regeneration (1915) to The Roaring Twenties (1939), which Scorsese sites as a major influence on Goodfellas; and the Musical with numbers from 42nd Street (1933) and My Dream is Yours (1949), which inspired Scorsese's New York, New York. Part 2: The Director as Illusionist traces the history of film through technical changes (sound, color, widescreen) and developing techniques (dissolves, tracking shots), to create as Scorsese says, "a new language based on images rather than words." Featured clips include D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), both versions of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments(1923 and 1956), Tourneur's Cat People (1942) and Kubrick's 2001 (1968). Also interviewed is George Lucas, who discusses the way digital effects have changed epic filmmaking. The Director as Smuggler I: focuses on the world of B-movies, film noir and 50s genres where subtext became part of the story. And directors like Fritz Lang, Aldo Ray and Sam Fuller, who managed to sneak in political or social issues by disregarding the rules all together. Part 3: The Director as a Smuggler II continues the focus on the world of B-movies, film noir and 50s genres where subtext became part of the story. And directors like Fritz Lang, Aldo Ray and Sam Fuller, who managed to sneak in political or social issues by disregarding the rules all together. The Director as Iconoclast looks at the maverick directors from Griffith and von Stroheim to Kubrick and Cassavetes who openly defied Hollywood. Well known cinema rebel Orson Welles explains that he "always liked Hollywood very much. It just wasn't reciprocated." Other interviews feature discussions with Elia Kazan on Brando in On the Waterfront (1954) and Arthur Penn on the desensitized violence of Bonnie and Clyde (1967).—Stephanie Thames
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What is the Spanish language plot outline for A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)?
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