When Martin Scorsese I was a kid growing up in the neighborhood. Little Italy of New York, looked at the figures he saw around Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Who are these people? What is a saint?” remembers Scorsese that was wondering. “The moment I left the cathedral, I didn’t see any saints. I saw people trying to behave in a world that was very primitive and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?”
For decades, Scorsese has reflected on a project dedicated to the saints. Now, it has finally been done in Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saintsan eight-episode docudrama series premiering on the Fox News Media streaming service in the United States.
The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Matti Leshem y Elizabeth Chomkoeach one narrates a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Juan the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the black, Sebastián y Maximiliano Kolbe. Joan of Arc opens the series, with three weekly installments that will follow; the final four will air closer to Easter next year.
In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief discussions led by Scorsese with experts, The Saints emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, for Scorseseonly enhances their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbefor example, helped spread anti-Semitism earlier, during World War II, by harboring Jews and eventually offering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz.
Scorsesewho turns 82 this Sunday, gave this interview shortly after returning from a trip to his grandfather’s village in Sicily. There he was made an honorary citizen, and the experience still lingered in his mind.
—What made you want to do The Saints?
—Back to my early childhood, to the respite and sanctuary I found in Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Not being able to play sports or be a tough guy on the streets. And, you know, the streets were pretty rough there. I found a sanctuary in that place. Now it is a basilica. The first Catholic Cathedral in New York in 1810, 1812. Figured in Gangs of New York. Los Know Nothings and anti-immigration groups attacked it in 1844. Archbishop Hughes responded. It is a place full of history. In this contemplation, I was curious about those figures, those statues, and what they represented. They had stories.
—Did you understand them then or did they seem divine?
—It took me a while to think about that and learn that, no, they were human. To me, if they could do that, it’s a good example for us. If you take it and put it in a difficult world—if you’re in business or Hollywood or politics or whatever—if you’re rooted in something that really acts with compassion and love, this is something that should be admired and imitated. They made mistakes. I found that by overvaluing a person, it almost frees you from doing the same. “At least there is someone doing it.” Well, what about you? Dorothy Day It was something incredible, but I knew: “Don’t put that label on me because that liberates everyone else.”
—Some were surprised that I am launching The Saints with Fox Nation. What led you to them?
—I’ve wanted to do this for years. I tried to do it in 1980 with RAI in Rome. Then it fell apart and I put my energy into The last temptation of Christ, Bundle, Silencewhich were obviously in that area that I could call spirituality.
Here, they came. I said, “Yeah, I’ll go with this.” They said, “This is the channel.” I said, “Okay, as long as we have the freedom to express what we want.” They went with the scripts. They went with the filming. They went with the cuts. Now what I think is: Do we take these thoughts or expressions and only express them to people who agree with us? It wouldn’t be any use to us. I’m talking about keeping an open mind.
Filming in Manhattan and Oklahoma (where it was filmed Killers of the Flower Moon) are two different things. Being around people on a farm that is a tenth the size of Manhattan is very different from being on 63rd Street. You start to see the world from how they perceive it. Just to understand what day and night mean in rural areas. It was an eye-opening experience to be out there for so long.
—He has made directly religious films such as Silence y The last temptation of Christbut I wonder how you see the role of faith in cinema. How are God and cinema related for you?
—Cinema comes from God. It comes from a gift. And that gift is also involved with an energy or a need to tell stories. As a storyteller, somehow there is a grace that has been given to me Which made me obsessed with it. The grace was through having that ability, but also struggling over the years to create these films. Because each one is a fight. Sometimes you stumble, fall, hit the canvas, you can’t get up. You crawl bleeding and beaten. They throw some water on you and somehow you make it. You go to another. Then you go to another one. This is the grace, it really is.
For me, it’s not that cinema is a god. It is the expression of God. Creativity is the expression of God. Something happens to you when it clicks, when it works. Not everyone thinks it works, but maybe you do. But something happens and there is no way to express that except that it is a gift. For me, it is a gift to experience and exist for that moment. Then it comes through cinema. It comes through movies. Even a commercial, because commercials are not easy. You have to tell a story in less than 45 seconds. My last film was three hours and 15 minutes long. (Laughs) Come on!
-From Killers of the Flower Moon has handled a few different options for his next feature film. Where is he now? Do you expect that The life of Jesusfrom the book by Shusaku Endo, be your next movie?
—It’s an option but I’m still working on it. There is a very strong possibility that he will make a film version of Homeof Marilynne Robinsonbut there is a scheduling problem. There is also a chance that I will go back and deal with the stories of my mother and father from the past and how they grew up. Stories about immigrants that were linked to my trip to Sicily. Right now, there has been a long period after Killers of the Flower Moon. Although I don’t like getting up early, I would like to shoot a movie right now. Time goes away. I’m turning 82. We have to continue.
—Are you allowing yourself to be guided differently in that choice?
—It guides you: Is it worth doing it at this late stage in your life? Can you reach the end? Is it worth your time? Because now, the most valuable thing, apart from the people I love, my family, is time. That’s all there is.
—Have you seen anything lately that you liked?
—Some old movies I’ve been watching. There is also a movie that I really liked, that I saw two weeks ago called I Saw the TV Glow. It really was emotionally and psychologically powerful and very moving. It gets to you, somehow. I didn’t know who made it, then I knew it was Jane Schoenbrun.
—Any old movies to recommend?
—People should see A Face in the Crowd (1957, Elia Kazan) over and over again. I think it would be important.
—What feeling do you have after the presidential elections?
—Well, of course I have strong feelings. I think you can tell from my work, from what I’ve said over the years. I think it is a great sadness, but at the same time, it is an opportunity. A real opportunity to make changes Ultimately, perhaps in the future, never despair and understand other people’s needs as well. Deep introspection is needed at this time. Action? I’m not a politician. It would be the worst you can imagine. I wouldn’t know what actions to take except to continue dialogue and, in some ways, compassion between us. This is what it’s about.
Source: AP
(Photos: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok; Slobodan Pikula/Fox Nation via AP; Timothy A. Clark/AFP; Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple TV+ via AP; A24 via AP)
