Watching “Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Films” (video below) again for about the fifth time It makes me wish that my teachers back in School could hold my attention as such. He is a fast talking and clearly knows everything he is saying to be fact; he doesn’t talk for the hell of it like a lot of filmmakers do these days. That is how I think me makes his films too; everything is up on the screen for a reason, no bull. Every shot, every angle and every piece of music has its reason. Genius.
His MySpace (which he doesn’t update or write himself because he doesn’t know how to use a computer, seriously how can you not like him; like a grandpa this guy is) has listed some of his favorite things, so here they are:
Music
All kinds. The ones I keep going back to – The Beatles, Cream (and all of Eric Clapton), The Band, Bob Dylan, The Stones of course – are all touchstones for me. I have a fondness for doo wop – you have to imagine what that music sounded like in the 1950′s. Drifting into the night from the radio and from record players. I listen to certain pieces of classical music obsessively – Beethoven, Bach, Lully, Mozart, Mahler. I grew up on Swing music and Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France, Sinatra, Bennett. If there’s one regret I have, it’s that I never learned to play an instrument.
Films
When I’m asked for my ten best, I always name five, in no particular order: Citizen Kane, The Searchers, 8 1⁄2, The Red Shoes and The Leopard. But there are so many more: Kubrick’s films, the Val Lewton pictures, Rossellini’s Paisà and Voyage to Italy, all of the Powell/Pressburger films, On The Waterfront and East of Eden, Breathless, L’Avventura, Eclipse…I could go on. There’s so much richness, variety, beauty, wisdom, excitement, so much life in the cinema…it’s exhilarating. It breaks my heart and it energizes and inspires me. Some recent filmmakers whose work I love: Tian Zhuangzhuang from China, who made Horse Thief and The Blue Kite; Hou Hsiao-hsien from Taiwan (I also love a movie directed by Wu Nien-jen, who wrote several films for Hou, called A Borrowed Life); Paul Thomas Anderson; Wes Anderson; many filmmakers, young and old, from South Korea; Abbas Kiarostami; Fatih Akin; Souleymane Cissé, Abderahmane Sissako and several other African filmmakers…again, a very long list.
Television
Turner Classic Movies, history and documentaries.
Books
I read a lot of history – particularly about the ancient world and I find myself reading mostly pre-20th century fiction.
Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Films - 3 parts > after the jump.
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