Martin Scorsese reveals his love of cinema “came out of a loneliness”
As he prepares to release his latest feature film, Killers of the Flower Moon, the 80-year-old Martin Scorsese has reflected on his early impetus to create.
Since his directional debut, 1967’s Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Scorsese has remained prolific in cinema, releasing a steady stream of movies through peaks and troughs of commercial and critical success.
At his best, Scorsese has released some of the most influential movies of the past half century, including Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.
In a new interview with GQ, Scorsese has revealed that his towering career is a brightness that shone from a dark place: “loneliness.”
As a child, Scorsese suffered from several health complications, most notably asthma. The filmmaker revealed that the illness thrust upon him a reclusive life packed with movies.
“Watching films came out of a necessity from the illness of asthma,” Scorsese said. “And it came out of a loneliness, which I still have, which had to do with my father and my mother. And they couldn’t do anything with me. So they took me to the movies.”
Scorsese noted that loneliness is something he still encounters to this day. Following his wife Helen Morris’ Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1990, his priorities became increasingly focused in the domestic and professional environments.
“There’s a lot invested in my personal life at home,” Scorsese explained to the magazine. “And there are only a few people who understand that and are gracious enough to be part of it. And so where we used to have dinner parties and things, that’s all becoming much, much less. And so I’m pretty much alone. And invariably, if I’m meeting with people, it’s business.”
Scorsese later revealed that he doesn’t really “want to go anywhere” these days. “I’d like to go to London,” he offered. “But, you know, I’ve been there a lot.”
He explained that even Los Angeles feels unfamiliar these days, and the only person he seems to know when he visits is Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of Killers of the Flower Moon.
“Most of my friends are gone,” Scorsese mourned. “They’re all new people. I don’t know them any more. It’s a new town. It’s a new industry. And it’s nice. It’s just like, I can’t hang out there. Except when I’m with Leo.”
Killers of the Flower Moon arrives in UK cinemas on October 18th. Watch the trailer below.
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