While we’ve long preferred to focus our energies on “film” in a defined category — that which is created with the medium in mind, tends to follow its typical production models, and, at the very least, premieres in a theatrical setting — recent auteurist pushes towards the small screen have made our decision more and more difficult to uphold. If you love Steven Soderbergh, how do you not write about nearly twenty hours of work he’s directed, shot, and edited? Shall the three-or-so hours of material Woody Allen is producing Amazon next year go unnoted? And then there’s David Lynch’s epic-length return to Twin Peaks, a project so anticipated around these here parts that we believe it could break the self-imposed walls for an extended period of time.
At this very moment, the main point of consideration is Vinyl — more specifically its first episode, which could play as Martin Scorsese‘s freewheeling, open-ended TV movie. HBO have made it available for free, and I think it’s really, truly worth an investment: while not among with his very finest work or quite up to snuff with the great run he’s been on in the past several years — you’ll have to ignore some risible writing (particularly during the early sections), and the breaking-in-a-new-pair-of-shoes quality that defines so many TV pilots shines through — this is some thoroughly energetic and unexpectedly personal filmmaking.
There are little experimentations within the basics — e.g. where to put the camera and place music, with subtle plays in perspective and perception between both, to various surreal touches that most shows wouldn’t dare implement — and particularly noteworthy is the use of a new, clean digital palette to remake images and scenarios from many of Scorsese’s films. I started losing count of connective threads, be they from Taxi Driver — one POV shot appears to be a direct lift, and a brief flash of stock footage may be taken from that film’s end credits — or Who’s That Knocking at My Door? or various music documentaries. If not a step forward, it makes for a perfectly admirable reflection on a lifetime’s work.
Along with that (which you’ll have to click the below photo to access a link), see a documentary on Scorsese circa the production of Goodfellas — now all the more fascinating for how it exists at more or less the mid-point of his career — and a 1982 visit to Late Night with David Letterman, where, among other things, horror cinema receives a fine defense. And, when you’re done, be sure to read his recent comments on film preservation. We’ve also included a stream of the first volume of the Vinyl soundtrack. [Erik Davis and Bleeding Cool]
