My early teenage years were when I discovered my three favourite living film directors- John Waters, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese.
It was whilst I was frantically hunting down all of the movies made by Scorsese after first watching Taxi Driver when I was 14 that I read of a documentary made in 1977 called Movies Are My Life. I had a friend who was lucky enough to have Sky TV on which there was a one-off screening of this and so I gave him a blank videotape and begged him to record it for me. He obliged.
It didn't disappoint. Over the years the tape it was on disappeared but it was just the other day that I was thinking about this documentary when I had the lightbulb moment that involved looking for it on the internet. And after a quick Google search I found it!
It's great watching it again. It was made in 1977 after Scorsese had finished shooting New York, New York and was editing The Last Waltz. This was an iconic time for Scorsese when he had made so many classic movies and was yet to make even more.
Not only is the maestro interviewed about his career so far but his contributors and collaborators are also interviewed and it's great to see such luminaries as De Niro, Jodie Foster, Steven Prince and Liza Minelli speaking about what's like to work with such a visionary.
The film is also noteworthy as it shows the friendship that Scorsese had/has with Robbie Robertson. These were Scorsese's wild years when he took certain substances to excess and ended up hospitalised because of it. The interviews with Robinson here capture this very vividly indeed (you'll know what I mean when you watch the film!) A choice moment is when he looks out of the window into the night sky and says 'It isn't even dawn yet!'
It's great that this peek into such a thrilling era of Scorsese's filmmaking life was chronicled, not so great that this film was unavailable for so long. It's fantastic that someone has uploaded it onto the internet but how long it stays up before it's pulled down is unknown. If I was you I'd finish reading this, do a Google search and watch it now. Just to be sure. Note- the version on YouTube is cut. Go the Google route to watch the full version on the net.
Can we get a proper release of this gem please?
It was whilst I was frantically hunting down all of the movies made by Scorsese after first watching Taxi Driver when I was 14 that I read of a documentary made in 1977 called Movies Are My Life. I had a friend who was lucky enough to have Sky TV on which there was a one-off screening of this and so I gave him a blank videotape and begged him to record it for me. He obliged.
It didn't disappoint. Over the years the tape it was on disappeared but it was just the other day that I was thinking about this documentary when I had the lightbulb moment that involved looking for it on the internet. And after a quick Google search I found it!
It's great watching it again. It was made in 1977 after Scorsese had finished shooting New York, New York and was editing The Last Waltz. This was an iconic time for Scorsese when he had made so many classic movies and was yet to make even more.
Not only is the maestro interviewed about his career so far but his contributors and collaborators are also interviewed and it's great to see such luminaries as De Niro, Jodie Foster, Steven Prince and Liza Minelli speaking about what's like to work with such a visionary.
The film is also noteworthy as it shows the friendship that Scorsese had/has with Robbie Robertson. These were Scorsese's wild years when he took certain substances to excess and ended up hospitalised because of it. The interviews with Robinson here capture this very vividly indeed (you'll know what I mean when you watch the film!) A choice moment is when he looks out of the window into the night sky and says 'It isn't even dawn yet!'
It's great that this peek into such a thrilling era of Scorsese's filmmaking life was chronicled, not so great that this film was unavailable for so long. It's fantastic that someone has uploaded it onto the internet but how long it stays up before it's pulled down is unknown. If I was you I'd finish reading this, do a Google search and watch it now. Just to be sure. Note- the version on YouTube is cut. Go the Google route to watch the full version on the net.
Can we get a proper release of this gem please?
