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Director, producer, screenwriter and actor
Martin Scorsese is celebrating a milestone today. The man considered by many as one of the (if not thee) greatest filmmakers of all-time turns 80. To celebrate his special day, check out a gallery of our favorite Scorsese films.
Scorsese was born in the Queens borough of New York City. As a boy, Martin had asthma and wasn’t able to play sports or participate in any activities with other children. This caused his parents and his older brother to start taking him to movie theaters. During these trips, he developed a passion for cinema. As time progressed, he became influenced by British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Roberto Rossellini, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Federico Fellini. Although Scorsese was enamored with cinema by the time he graduated from high school, he initially wanted to be a priest. When that didn’t go as planned, he enrolled in NYU’s Washington Square College (now known as the College of Arts and Science), where he earned a B.A. in English in 1964. After that, he went on to earn his MA from NYU’s School of Education (now the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development) four years later.
A year before he received his MA, Scorsese made his directorial debut when his film
Who’s That Knocking at My Door was accepted into the Chicago Film Festival. The rest is history. Scorsese become one of the major figures in the new Hollywood era in the 1970s and 1980s and hasn’t looked back since. His films are heavily influenced by his Italian-American background and his upbringing in New York City. The vast majority of his films center on macho-posturing insecure men and explore crime, machismo, nihilism, and Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption. Some of his trademarked styles include: include extensive use of slow motion and freeze frames, graphic depictions of extreme violence, and liberal use of profanity.
In the time he’s been in the industry, Scorsese has become one of the most decorated filmmakers of all-time. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, three Emmy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards, a Palme d’Or, an AFI Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” He has been named by countless filmmakers as one of their biggest influences and inspirations. His work will undoubtedly live on forever. To celebrate his birthday and untouchable legacy, enjoy a gallery of ten of our favorite movies from him. HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY TO MARTIN SCORSESE!
