Martin Scorsese has a privileged mind for cinema, and for this reason he is among those great authors, like Agnès Varda, capable of shining making fiction films and making documentaries. The key, according to himself, is that there is no difference between both worlds, everything has the same narrative impulse and the same neorealist essence.
His birthday could be an excuse to celebrate any of his great fiction films, which are not few, but today we turn the conversation towards non-fiction, which also has many must-haves. We choose three that can also be seen on streaming platforms, and that have the same wonderful momentum of their films that we love so much.
‘The last waltz’ (‘The Last Waltz’, 1978)
Interventions of: The Band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond
Part concert film, part conscientious look at a turning point for rock and pop music, Scorsese hit the road with the unmissable The Band during their farewell concerts. A wonderful document continues to set the standard to follow when making these concert films.
Not even all the drugs that were circulating during that tour could disguise as euphoria what was actually a funeral march for The Band. But not a solemn one, but euphoric and powerful. Scorsese perfectly captures the musician’s life on the road, the wear and tear that goes with it, and creates a fabulous rock and roll elegy that he appropriately frames as a funeral. But not a sad one.
See in Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies’ (‘A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies’, 1995)
Interventions by: Martin Scorsese, Frank Capra, John Cassavetes, Philippe Collin, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma
Save yourself years of film school or insufferable Twitter discussions about what is cinema or what is not. It will be cheaper and more entertaining to go through the three episodes of this wonderful docuseries where Scorsese shows that speaks more eloquently and passionately about the art of cinema than anyone.
One can spend hours listening to him talk about the subject because it is not only didactic, but also appreciates the care and affection he puts into commenting on it. The power of cinema and the image, the history of art and form. Less than five hours of a fabulous piece that It will teach you things that you will never let go of. and it can even sting you to really get into classic cinema.
See in Filmin
‘Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese’ (2019)
Interventions of: Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Baez, Sharon Stone.
The figure of Bob Dylan is a recurring figure in Scorsese’s work, just because of his appearance in ‘The Last Waltz’ and the two different documentaries made around him (both fabulous). There is something really special in the most recent, ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’, because it shows even more the impossibility of capturing Dylan because it is not known with him to what extent it is reality or it is just smoke and mirrors.
Perhaps that is why Scorsese does not try to explain it so much as to explore it through those around him. Or, as he does here, look for the fracture of the boundaries between reality and fiction to get into all the creative (and drug) whirlwind that was that traveling circus show he put on. And right among the various lies that are being told, he manages to make an interesting and honest exploration of an artist at the best possible creative moment (part of what would later become Blood on the Tracks was germinating here).
Watch on Netflix