“There re -election by Donald Trump was a great disappointment. I’m not a politician, I just try to understand what compassion is, what is important in life among human beings. And I don’t find that the Trump administration has any of this. On the contrary, It seems that you feel pleasure in doing the opposite, in hurting people. And it’s sad. Tragic”.
Martin Scorsese He arrives in Taormina, and Taormina stops to celebrate him. The great American director, 82 years old, has returned – as he prefers to say – in Sicily to receive the career prize at the Taormina Film Festival, relaunched this year by Tiziana Rocca. A masterclass with cinema students, the red carpet with her daughter Francesca, the award ceremony, and then the screening of one of her most iconic films, Taxi driverin the middle of the night at the ancient theater.
In Taormina Scorsese he spoke of roots, of vocation and religion, of democracy in danger and these complicated days in his America. “My father was of generous Polizzi, my mother of Ciminna,” he says to the students, “for me to be here is not a visit, it’s a return. I learned a lot from my family ». And again: «I grew up in New York immersed in Sicilian culture, in a very hard environment. Two opposite worlds coexisted around me: on the one hand, faith, compassion, on the other, organized crime. And perhaps the origin of everything I tell in my films is there: faith and gangster ».
Religion and new projects
And his new projects also all have to do with religion: a new film about Jesus, a series on the life of the saints, a documentary about Pope Francis. Martin Scorsese often smiles, he argues his answers a lot, he looks around. He has a blue shirt, clear jacket, is sitting on an armchair of the Metropole hotel, begins to speak. “I am working on a project on the life of Jesus set in the contemporary world”, reveals in a meeting with a restricted group of journalists, “I am looking for an approach that really works, and I think it will take us at least another year. The idea was born even from the sixties, when I thought of a film based on the Gospels set in the Lower East Side in New York, in the poor neighborhoods where I grew up. I had already started elaborating something while studying nyu cinema, which at the time had only thirty students. We wanted to turn black and white. But then I saw The Gospel according to Matteo And I said: “Stop everyone, I have to find another way”.
Pope Francis
“Yes, I was lucky enough to meet him several times,” reveals, “we are currently concluding a documentary entitled ALDEAS – A New Storyproduced with Scholas Occhurntes, an active movement in Argentina. The film was shot in Sicily, where I was with them in October, but also in Gambia, in the Amazon and in other places. The meaning is to tell stories to know different cultures, different ways of thinking, and learning from each other. Pope Francis also appears in that film: he spoke to the young people of the advice of the elderly. I was one of the elderly ».
The new Pope
On Leone XIV Scorsese he says his: «I don’t see it as” American “. Anyone who becomes Pope must be for everyone. It is not that he suddenly becomes Argentine, or Nigerian, or Philippine: he is the Pope. The point is that the Church today must preserve its soul, but also to open up to the world. And from what I read about him, I think he has the right approach ». The most urgent theme is to work for peace: «Peace starts from knowledge, from knowing where people are, from a job on the heart. It is not only the absence of conflict. It is necessary to reduce greed. Even if we do not agree politically, we must recognize ourselves in the right to live. Only in this way is a true peace build ».
Religion and vocation
Spirituality, he explains again, has always been a fundamental theme for him, also for the way he grew up: “Well, when I was very young, one of the places where I found a sort of comfort was the cathedral of St. Patrick, the old cathedral in the center of New York. There was a priest, a young priest, very severe and strong, who was really good with us. He made us know the literature. We saw the world through its ancient lens. No, moreover, we really lived in an ancient world. We lived in the world of Sicily. We lived in Cimina and Polizzi generous, who is very beautiful, but it was the world for older immigrants, who arrived in 1910, in 1900. But we were a new generation. And we knew that there was another world out there. It’s called New York. And New York, was part of a new place called America. And so, this priest was between the two things. He spoke to us for the first time. And I thought: it would have been wonderful to be like him. Being able to be such a teacher. Also, I was not a healthy child. I was always sick, I had terrible asthma. NI could do sports. And they always put me in the cinema or in church ».
But then the cinema for Martin Scorsese seemed an impossible road: “What could I do? Shoot movies in New York? It was crazy. “It cannot be done. That is California stuff. There are people with huge machinery and who knows how it is done,” I said to me. So I thought my way was the priesthood. But I only resisted six months in that small seminar. And I understood that it was not for me. But, I also think it was the moment when I started understanding the meaning of the vocation. The vocation is a call, right? It doesn’t concern yourself. It concerns others. And I couldn’t do it.
The director continues: «But religion – I hate using the word religion – is a different thing. The sense of the nature of the mystery, of the love of God, has never abandoned me. And I faced it in Mean Streets. I mean, that film speaks of arrogance, pride, greed, ignorance – in that sense – but also speaks mainly about the guardian brother. Of love between the two. And he also talks about living a life of sin. And then you are expected that you can atone for your sins simply by going to a building and praying for an hour. We enter there and everything is fine. We go out … and there are people, money circulating, pistols, people. In short, organized crime was around me. And ordinary people who had a grocery store were oppressed. Therefore, the religious aspects are always present in me and in my works, as are the taxi drivers, or policemen ».
Gangs of New York
“Gangs of New York It’s my neighborhood, “he says again,” that’s where I grew up. The Five Points. I went around and saw these old buildings, these dilapidated seats, the poultry markets underground. So it was all true. Gangs of New York It was natural to make. The only thing is that there were no Italians, but Irish immigrants. And the first were the first to suffer the greatest weight of the attack on immigration to America ».
Protests in America, the Trump government and immigrants
Does the story repeat itself? «Well, the story always repeats itself. It was repeated with the Italians. The point is that any new group that arrives in this experiment of democracy will initially oppose. Because it is different. I no longer recognize half of New York. I don’t know how to orient myself. The weight was felt first by the Irish. Then the situation stabilized. It took a generation, perhaps two. The Italians, however, were those who remained marginalized. And then I remember my childhood who after the Italians in New York – only in Manhattan – The Puerto Ricercans arrived. And so we did West Side Story. Any group that arrives – Asian or others – It seems to have to pass through a sort of conflict process, before there can be assimilation ».
Democracy under pressure in the United States
Democracy today is in danger. «Well, I’m not a historian, but reading a lot of history, mi seems to be under pressure to the point that, probably, we are close to something similar to the American civil war of 1860 “explains the director, «The division in the country is very clear. Still, I was in Oklahoma, where I shot Killers of the Flower Moon. We were politically very different, but we had a good time together. Because I lived there with them. They were with me, they saw us, they were there. It will take a generation – I hope not more – because, when cultures, people and ways of thinking so different coexists in a city, there will always be problems. But the point is that every time new people arrive, even in a small town, there are conflicts. Then you learn about people and understand who they are. And conflicts attempt each other, at least hopefully. But at this moment, the situation reminds me that of the Irish in 1840, 1850, and what they passed. And then also the Italians, the Sicilians and the Neapolitans, what they passed. Perhaps during this government, perhaps at the end of this government, something more favorable will come to. “
Trump’s re -election
And if Michael Douglas always in Taormina said “This is the darkest period I remember, I am ashamed of my country,” Scorsese also said his on the government of Donald Trump and on his re -election: «A disappointment. Yes, it was a disappointment for me too. I am not a political philosopher and I don’t have to do with politics. I just try to understand what compassion is, what is important in life among humans. And I don’t find that the Trump administration has any of this. Indeed, it seems that you feel pleasure in doing the opposite, in hurting people. And it’s sad. Tragic. At the beginning I thought: “Well, this is really the end of the democracy we knew”. But what is happening is that democracy is tested. Sortthey are anger and hatred that worry me. And thinking to duties, I wonder how will people be willing to tolerate a policy that will have economic and social repercussions for generations to come. We have to work to control the power of the president ».
Cinema and the search for truth
What can cinema do in such a difficult period? «Well, a fundamental thing is to continue trying to bring out the truth. And with new technologies, of course, it is no longer known if the truth exists. Nobody can say it. Photographs, artificial intelligence … we don’t know. Now, the truth can be different on the other side of the road. But it is their truth. Let’s listen. And I think anger can consume you. It is not always the best thing. But at least it can push you to act in the truth of a situation ».
Source: Vanity Fair
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