Martin Scorsese on Hollywood: “The industry is over”
Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese has discussed the current state of the movie business and claimed “the industry is over” as he once knew it.
Scorsese’s most recent film, The Irishman, was briefly released in cinemas but was streamed on Netflix shortly afterwards as they had purchased the distribution rights. Similarly, his upcoming movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone will enjoy a run in cinemas before being rolled out on Apple TV on October 20th.
Explaining how Hollywood has changed, Scorsese said in a new interview: “Well, the industry is over. In other words, the industry that I was part of, we’re talking almost, what, 50 years ago? It’s like saying to somebody in 1970 who made silent films, ‘What do you think’s happened?'”
According to Scorcese, studios are not “interested any longer in supporting individual voices that express their personal feelings or their personal thoughts and personal ideas on a big budget. And what’s happened now is that they’ve pigeonholed it to what they call indies”.
He added to GQ: “I think there will always be theatrical, because people want to experience this thing together. But at the same time, the theatres have to step up to make them places where people will want to go and enjoy themselves or want to go and see something that moves them”.
In the same interview, Scorsese also explained why he believes the dominance of superhero films at the box office is negative for the future of cinema: “The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture. Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are.”
On a personal level, Scorsese revealed another reason why Hollywood is different to him is due to many of his new generation no longer being around. He explained how he now feels like a stranger when visiting Los Angeles unless he’s in the company of Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Most of my friends are gone,” Scorsese remarked. “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.”
Meanwhile, in the same conversation, Scorsese revealed his love of cinema was linked to suffering from asthma as a child and “a loneliness” inside of him.
“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.”
Watch the trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon below.
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