Scorsese Universe
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Fan account of Martin Scorsese. We are not related to him in any way.
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One of the saddest scenes in Taxi Driver (1976) is just two people having breakfast. Travis has brought Iris to a diner because he wants to convince her to leave Sport. He expects the situation to be obvious: she is a child, Sport is exploiting her, and going home should be the easiest decision in the world. Iris does not experience it that way. She talks about Sport as if he were a boyfriend. She brings up astrology, defends him and brushes off Travis’s concern. None of this means she understands what is happening to her. It means she has already learned how to make it sound normal. That is the most disturbing part of the conversation. Iris describes exploitation using the language of love, loyalty and freedom. Then she pours sugar over her jelly. It lasts only a second, but it breaks through the whole performance. Iris may wear sunglasses, speak in street slang and insist that she can make her own decisions, but she still eats breakfast like a kid. Jodie Foster never pushes the moment. Iris is not presented as a helpless symbol waiting to be rescued. She is funny, stubborn, suspicious and sometimes more socially aware than Travis. Then a small gesture reminds you how young she really is. Travis is unusually gentle with her. He listens. He lowers his voice. He gives her money and tries, in his broken way, to offer an escape. He is also imagining himself as her savior. That is the danger underneath his concern. Travis correctly sees that Iris needs help, but he cannot help anyone without turning the situation into a story about himself. Her rescue becomes another chance for him to prove that he has a purpose. Knowing what comes later makes the quietness of the diner difficult to watch. Here, Travis looks almost capable of helping her like a normal person. Later, he enters the building with guns and leaves bodies behind him. The film never asks us to choose between the two versions of him. His concern for Iris may be genuine. So is his desire for violence. He can recognize that a child is being harmed, but he cannot imagine saving her without becoming the hero of a bloodbath. For a few minutes over breakfast, Travis almost looks like someone Iris could trust. Almost.
Scorsese Universe192,578 Aufrufe • vor 1 Tag
The coldest scene in The Irishman has no violence in it. Russell Bufalino pours cereal at a breakfast table and tells Frank Sheeran that Hoffa is already gone. Not dead yet. But finished — the decision made, upstairs, by people Frank can't argue with. That's what makes "either way, he's going" so bad to hear. Russell isn't raising a possibility. He's reading out a verdict, and he doesn't stop eating to do it. Pesci built a career on men who could go off at any second — Tommy in Goodfellas, Nicky in Casino, danger measured in volume. Russell is the opposite. He doesn't raise his voice or threaten Frank or put down the spoon. The power is in the stillness. When Russell says a thing will happen, the film makes you feel the world has already rearranged itself around the sentence. Which is why it's cereal and not a gun. The gesture is almost fatherly. He's feeding Frank while ending him, keeping him safe while making him betray the man he loves. "We did everything we could for the man" sounds like sympathy. It's permission — the words Frank will need later to live with it. We tried. We warned him. De Niro barely speaks and you watch it land anyway. It settles behind his eyes: this was never only about Hoffa. The bosses could have marked Frank too. Russell isn't just telling him Jimmy dies. He's reminding him that he and his wife are breathing because Russell decided they would. "You're with me." It should be a comfort. In this film friendship doesn't pull you out of the machine. It only sets the order — who gets eaten now, who gets eaten later. That's the scene that drops the temperature of the whole movie. No bravado, no code, no glory. Old men at a table deciding which friend gets spent. Frank isn't choosing between right and wrong. He's choosing between Jimmy and "us," and by the time the bowl is empty he knows the choice was made without him.
Scorsese Universe235,226 Aufrufe • vor 6 Tagen
Which movie has the most iconic fourth-wall break? I’ll start: Goodfellas (1990)
Scorsese Universe1,721,544 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Casino, 1995
Scorsese Universe956,209 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
De Niro in Cape Fear is genuinely terrifying and everyone pretends that movie doesn’t exist
Scorsese Universe191,221 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten
In The Irishman (2019), ILM used a custom markerless de-aging rig—no tracking dots or headgear.
Scorsese Universe319,682 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
This was the original trailer for Goodfellas in 1990.
Scorsese Universe200,036 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten
