I was a thief, who got away with making movies: Martin Scorsese

Undoubtedly one of the greatest filmmakers, Martin Scorsese had a stellar career spanning more than half-a-century and churned out movies, which were classics. He was part of the ‘new wave’ of filmmaking in Hollywood, along with compatriots Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Scorsese speaks about his recent film ‘Silence’

A devout catholic, he was heading towards becoming a priest, before taking a plunge into movies. He helmed landmark films and his collaboration with long time friend and actor Robert De Niro produced cult classics like ‘Mean Streets’ (1973); ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976); ‘Raging Bull’ (1980); ‘The King of Comedy’ (1983); ‘Goodfellas’ (1990); ‘Cape Fear’ (1991) and ‘Casino’ (1995).

The veteran director’s collaboration with Leonardo Di Caprio is equally famous and the duo served delectable movies like ‘Gangs of New York’ (2002), ‘The Aviator’ (2004), ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013) and ‘The Departed’ (2006), for which he won the long overdue Oscar, despite being nominated seven times earlier.

The maverick director recently directed the film ‘Silence’, which is garnering rave reviews. ‘Silence’ has been his long-time passion project, which he developed for over 28 years, an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s eponymous book. The film is about two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver), who travel to 17th century Japan to locate their mentor (Liam Neeson) who committed apostasy.

In an exclusive interview, the legendary Martin Scorsese speaks about ‘Silence’, his influences and more…

Excerpts:

‘Silence’ materialised after 28 years, do you think the wait was worth it?
‘Silence’ took many years to make. I had received the book in 1988 and I read it in 1989. I knew it right then that I had to adapt it. Part of my whole process with this movie has been that I really couldn’t make it back then. I didn’t know how to make it. I had just made ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ and I knew I couldn’t approach this film that way. It needed to have its own style. I had to let it grow in me and think about it without thinking about it meaning contemplation and meditation. So it is different in that aspect from my other movies.

If there’s one thing that people, who watch ‘Silence’ will take away from it, what do you think it is?
In the world I’m in, there’s an attitude of, it’s like with the George Harrison film I made, ‘Living in the Material World’. That’s why I did the film. It’s a matter of not accepting the certitude of scientific thinking, or even philosophical thinking. Yes, there are many problems with organised religions. But the certitude of who we are, and what this universe is, and this life—it just can’t be. This is an old man talking, but we might be in a world where younger people won’t even consider that which is not material, that which one can’t see, taste, or feel. And ultimately, when everything is stripped away in ‘Silence’, that’s really what’s left. It is the spiritual.

Do you think the film did justice to the book?
We knew that Endo’s book was based on real people. Father Ferreira was a famous figure of his time. So, we set out to learn as much about the real life characters as we could. An additional source of knowledge and information throughout pre-production and shooting was Van Gessel, the English translator of Endo’s work, who was always available to answer questions. And yet another indispensable counsellor during pre-production in New York was the Jesuit priest Father James Martin, editor at large of the Jesuit publication, America. Father Martin spent hours on end with me going over the fine points of Christian theology and Jesuit theory.

Were you concerned the film was, maybe too dark?
It’s a piece of art. I picked up this novel for the first time almost twenty eight years ago. I’ve re-read it countless times since then… It has given me a kind of sustenance that I have found in only a very few works of art.

How was the casting process?
Andrew is the right age, but more importantly he has the ability to handle the role. And he cares. Frankly he’s a god-sent. The actor, who would play Rodrigues had to have the ability and understanding to deal with the complex issues that inform the character. I understood also that we had to find someone who would want to play the part.

Over the years I had seen many actors. Some said right off the bat they had no interest in the subject and that was that. First , all I needed was great actors. I know that sounds simple but it’s true, the material is extremely complex, the world in which the story unfolds is unknown to most of us here in the west, and I needed actors who could absorb it all and dive in and bring it to life. I needed adventurers and I use that term in the physical and emotional senses.

With Liam and Ciarán, I needed people with certain gravity, people who understood stillness and silence. Every second that they were on screen had to count, and they needed to provide a contrast to Andrew and Adam, whose characters are younger, thinner, more impulsive. I also needed the audience to see that contrast visually: the thin, angular faces of the two younger actors, who move quickly, in contrast to the older, more becalmed, physically grounded actors. That was the idea, and that’s what the four of them bring to the picture.

You were influenced by films and while getting into film making, you must have had a desire to influence other people in the same way. Do you think you have succeeded?
Through the process of the work, the composition, there’s a searching. If you believe you’ve been given a gift and use it to tell stories, it can be purifying. Now that I made ‘Silence’, the next movies will be like starting from zero. And I’m going to make them with forgiveness and enjoyment

How has your approach towards making films evolved from your first film to now?
I kind of look back now and I say after all these years, I couldn’t make it as a Hollywood movie maker. I was almost a thief, who got away with making these movies in the margins of the book. Some were more in a marketable range.... Others are not. I found I could only really get excited about stories that I wanted to tell and they seem to be more internal and personal.

What is your inspiration?
Music is the purest form. I mean, music totally comes from your soul. I just remember growing up with guitar music and jazz. I would play these 78s that my father had in the '40s, and all these images came to mind. That's the way I've always worked-listening to music and getting pictures from the music.

What was the most difficult period in your life, and how did you deal with it?
I nearly lost my life to drugs about 38 years ago until a 10-day stint in a hospital allowed me the introspection needed to clean up my act. I struggled with drug addiction after wrapping up work on the 1977 film ‘New York, New York’. After finishing ‘New York, New York’, I took chances. I was out of time and out of place in a drug haze, while concurrently dealing with asthma-related issues. I was dealing with turmoil in my own life around 1978, and embracing the other world, so to speak, with a kind of attraction to the dangerous side of existence.

The issues came to a head on Labour Day weekend of that year, when my body nearly shut down through the rigmarole of drugs, sickness and a frenetic work pace I had been keeping. I found myself in a hospital, surprised that I was near death. A number of things had happened. Misuse of normal medications in combinations to which my body reacted in strange ways. I was down to about 109 pounds and suffered from asthma. My hospitalisation lasted a whopping 10 days and nights, during that time I was able to do some serious soul searching.

Tell us about your collaboration with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Bob (Robert De Niro) and me, we are around the same age and we were there for each other and we know each other. We seem to have grown over the years but I have not worked with Bob for a long time. But he and I always seem to be interested in the same material, we aren't afraid to take chances. Leo, even though he's younger, has the same sensibilities as I. So, Leo and I became very comfortable. When you work with an actor even once, it’s good. However, when you work with them multiple times over the years then you certainly warm up to each other.

With eight Best Director nominations, you are the most nominated living director and you won an Academy Award in 2006 for ‘The Departed’. Do you think you should have won the award earlier than that?
The problem is that it’s not about the prize. It’s about being able to get films made. That is what I keep my eye on. When the actual statuette was awarded to me, and by the way, I didn’t think ‘The Departed’ would get anything, it came at a good time in my life, for personal reasons, for family reasons. It certainly helped me get financing for a couple of pictures

Who were some of your major influences when you first started out?
When I was young, I was extraordinarily lucky, because I had a remarkable priest, Father Principe. I learned so much from him, and that includes mercy with oneself and with others. Of course, he sometimes played the role of the stern moral instructor—His example was something else again. This man was a real guide. He could talk tough, but he never actually forced you to do anything—he guided you. Advised you. Cajoled you. He had such extraordinary love.

What kind of influence and inspiration do you draw from George Melies?
Melies actually was a magician. He understood the possibilities of the motion picture camera. ‘Hugo’ was a tribute to Melies. He invented special effects. And when you see these coloured images moving, the way he composed these frames and what he did with the action, it's like looking at illuminated manuscripts moving.

What are your future projects?
I am teaming up with Leo on a thriller titled ‘The Devil in the White City’, which is in the development stages as of yet. I am to shoot ‘The Irishman’ with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. I am also developing a biopic on George Washington which is titled ‘The General’ and I am to produce a biopic on Mike Tyson.