Quotable Scorsese

"When we talk about personal expression, I’m often reminded of Kazan’s film America, America, the story of his uncle’s journey from Anatolia to America—the story of so many immigrants who came to this country from a very, very foreign land. I kind of identified with it and was very moved by it. Actually, I later saw myself making this same journey, but not from Anatolia. Rather, from my own neighborhood in New York, which was, in a sense, a very foreign land. I made that journey from that land to moviemaking, which was something unimaginable.

Actually, when I was a little younger there was another journey I wanted to make. It was a religious one—I wanted to be a priest. However I soon realized that my real vocation, my real calling, was the movies. I don’t really see a conflict between the Church and movies—the sacred and the profane. Obviously there are major differences, but I could also see great similarities between a church and a movie house. Both are places for people to come together and share a common experience, and I believe there’s a spirituality in films, even if it’s not one which can supplant faith. I find that over the years many films address themselves to the spiritual side of man’s nature—from Griffith’s film Intolerance to John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath, to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, to Kubrick’s 2001 and so many more. It’s as if movies answer an ancient quest for the common unconscious. They fulfill a spiritual need that people have…to share a common memory."

Martin Scorsese, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies

I for one am glad that Scorsese found his calling as a filmmaker and not as Father Martin. Though our backgrounds are quite different, I sense a kindred spirit. The documentary from which the above quote is taken is fabulous. The best of its kind. It's not what you might expect—a haphazard stringing together of film clips with a Scorsese voiceover. No, this is a lovingly assembled guided tour featuring long-time collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker, a wistful theme from Elmer Bernstein, and titles by Saul Bass. Watching it for the first time over a decade ago was one of the things that kindled my love for cinema. Thanks, Marty!