There’s no question that Martin Scorsese has a deep affinity for the filmmaking greats that have come before him, and better yet, he’s equally passionate about passing his knowledge on. Whether it be his many interviews for The Criterion Collection or extensive discussions elsewhere, his insight is always amore than appreciated. If one is looking for a bite-sized recap on a few of the filmmaker’s biggest influences, Refocused Media have pointed us to a series of interviews in 2011 the director did for Fast Company on cinema’s risk-takers.
Speaking on Citizen Kane and Orson Welles he said, “This was a force of nature that came in, a creation that wiped the slate clean from the type of films that preceded him. There was never any gray with him. He told Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland, ‘Let’s do everything they told us never to do.’ The low angles and deep focal-length lenses, the structure of the story, the flashbacks, the overlapping images–no one had ever seen anything like it.” Also opening up about Roberto Rosellini, Powell and Pressburger, John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, and more, they are must-watches and can be seen directly below; feel free to skip the first 14 seconds ago, considering there’s the same intro for each video.
Orson Welles
Robert Altman
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
John Cassavetes
Roberto Rosellini
Chuck Tatum in Ace in the Hole
William Friese-Greene
Which risk-taking filmmakers do you look up to?