Ari Aster selects Martin Scorsese’s “most perfect” movie
When it comes to Martin Scorsese’s incredible filmography, it’s almost impossible to single out just one work. Since the very beginning of his career, Scorsese showed signs of greatness and greatly influenced the New Hollywood movement with his pioneering experiments. While most fans would be unsure if they were asked about Scorsese’s greatest cinematic masterpiece, one person has tried to answer the unanswerable question: Ari Aster.
Aster and Scorsese have maintained a healthy mutual respect for each other’s work. In fact, Scorsese has championed Aster since his debut feature – Hereditary. Labelling Aster as “a young filmmaker that obviously knew cinema”, Scorsese has repeatedly stated that the Midsommar director is a major part of the future of horror cinema. This is undoubtedly high praise coming from Scorsese, a visionary whom Aster considers to be one of his heroes.
During a conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, Aster was asked to name some of the essential works that had influenced his own sensibilities as a director. In addition to works by Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini, Aster included one film by Scorsese, but the decision created an intense dilemma for the filmmaker. According to Aster, it came down to Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, but he ultimately named the former as Scorsese’s greatest work.
Aster explained: “I had a hard time choosing between Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, but I think it’s got to be Taxi Driver. I mean, from Bernard Hermann’s score to what Scorsese does with the camera with Michael Chapman. Yeah, it’s just like this sickly fever dream that captures a New York that I never got to see, but it just feels like New York to me. You know, the way that he kind of wrangled all of these very important influences that have nothing to do with one another. Like, there’s a lot of Bresson in there, but then there’s also Max Ophüls, and there’s Fellini, and there’s Cassavetes.”
The director added: “You know, you see so many sources, but together they’ve become singularly Scorsese. I could put any number of Scorsese films in here. I could put Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, The King of Comedy, but right now, this strikes me as like his toughest and most perfect film… Also, Bernard Hermann’s score is so persistent and so pervasive, it feels like a total montage, because that score is so driving. I’m not sure if there is another Scorsese film whose score is so integral.”
For many film fans, Taxi Driver has probably been the perfect introduction to Scorsese’s work. A quintessential New York film, it stars Robert De Niro in the most iconic role of his career – an insomniac cabbie named Travis Bickle who embarks on a dizzying descent to the depths of human depravity. Although some might disagree, Aster insists that Taxi Driver is the blinding apotheosis of Scorsese’s vision of cinema.
