Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple Apple TV+ announced on Wednesday their best reason yet for not canceling the free trial subscription that comes with a new Apple product. Martin Scorsese, the most influential living film director by any reasonable metric, agreed to open up his archives and be the subject of a five-part documentary calledMr. Scorsese. In a statement,Rebecca Miller, the project's director, said that Scorsese's "work and life are so vast and so compelling that the piece evolved from one to five parts over a five-year period; crafting this documentary alongside my longtime collaborators has been one of the defining experiences of my life as a filmmaker." Ronan Killeen/Apple Use of the past tense there suggests thatMr. Scorsesehas already been shot, or mostly shot, though no word has been given yet on a premiere. The New York Film Festival, which happens each year in late September, seems like the obvious spot for such a launch, but has Martin Scorsese, or Apple for that matter, ever done anything obvious? No, and that's why documentaries are made about them. Miller, whose previous films includeThe Ballad of Jack and RoseandMaggie's Plan, is also married toDaniel Day-Lewis, the star of such notable Scorsese films asThe Age of InnocenceandThe Gangs of New York. (She's also playwrightArthur Millerand photographerInge Morath's daughter, in case you didn't know.) As a reminder, here's how Scorsese and the three-time Oscar winner worked together to make romantic sublimation and repressed emotions weirdly sensual. In addition to Day-Lewis (who was hardly a "get" for Miller, she knows where the guy lives), other announced interview subjects include Scorsese collaborators likeRobert De Niro,Leonardo DiCaprio,Mick Jagger, the lateRobbie Robertson,Sharon Stone,Jodie Foster,Cate Blanchett, andPaul Schrader, as well as chums likeSteven Spielbergand Scorsese's wife and children. The project promises to explore his work from his student experiments through classics likeTaxi Driver,GoodFellas,The Departed, Killers of the Flower Moon,and more, isolating recurring themes like "the place of good and evil in the fundamental nature of humankind." Documentaries are not new to Scorsese, though he's usually the one calling action. Indeed, from his earliest days, he's had almost something of a shadow career to his more visible one making award-winning narratives. One of his first gigs was actually as a cameraperson and one of several editors onWoodstock, the lodestar of all modern concert films. The following year, he and a collective called "The New York Cinetracts" produced a fascinating "city symphony" project,Street Scenes 1970, which contrasted protest movements on either side of the political fence. Janus Films In 1974, after the release of his breakthroughMean Streetsand before the Oscar-winningAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, he turned the camera on his parents Charles and Catherine (and Catherine's cooking) for the charming short featureItalianamerican. This was a time when access to film equipment, not to mention distribution, for "average people" to showcase themselves was almost unheard of. Four years later, after the triumph ofTaxi Driver(which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes), Scorsese madeThe Last Waltz, the "farewell" concert by The Band. (Ask most cinephiles what the best concert film of all time is, and they'll either say it'sThe Last Waltzor Jonathan Demme'sStop Making SensewithThe Last Waltzin close second. And both will be right.) In the 1990s, Scorsese made two documentaries about cinema history. The first,A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, is exactly what it sounds like — a look at how passionate filmgoing shaped Scorsese's worldview, and filled with remarkable clips and observations. (It's also close to four hours long, but should be twice that.) He followed that up withMy Voyage to Italy, which was the same tune as above, but with Italian movies. This one is a little over four hours, and also could keep going and would be just as great. RAPH GATTI/AFP via Getty Other documentaries in the 2000s kept, at first, to well-known figures. One onBob Dylan. One onGeorge Harrison. ARolling Stonesconcert film. A cinematic essay about film director Elia Kazan. A second one on Dylan. But there were also some unexpected subjects. The 50 Year Argumentinvestigated the influence ofThe New York Review of Books, an important but hardly top-selling journal of essays and criticism. In 2010, he madePublic Speaking, a loving portrait of the crusty intellectual (but also, if we're being honest, comedian) Fran Lebowitz. In 2021, the two collaborated on the Netflix seriesPretend It's a City, which is basically Lebowitz and Scorsese sitting at a restaurant for seven episodes while she tells stories and he doubles over in laughter, oftentimes slapping the table in pure joy. Will Rebecca Miller be as vocal in her appreciation of Mr. Scorsese duringMr. Scorsese? Only time will tell. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
