Martin Scorsese Reacts to Rumors of His Possible Retirement

The legendary director behind films like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, has addressed the rumors about his retirement. This comes after future feature film projects by the director were put on hold. Nevertheless, it seems we will have one of the last great American directors telling stories for a while yet.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese is set to receive a prestigious award in Italy, and he spoke to the press about his future in making movies. The award, named Stella della Mole, will be presented by Turin’s Museum of Cinema, and industry greats like Willem Dafoe, Dante Ferretti and Giuseppe Tornatore will be at the ceremony. Previous recipients include Ruben Östlund, Pablo Larraín and Tim Burton, among others.

“I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,” claims Scorsese while showing his golden smile and everlasting joyful attitude. While his future projects, Jesus and Frank Sinatra’s biopics, have been indefinitely put on hold, it seems the director of Casino and The Irishman has more up his sleeve:

I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.

The Hollywood legend also spoke about his current film project, a documentary about marine archeology. A collaboration with famed underwater archaeologist Lisa Briggs, the film is being produced in Sicily, Italy, where specialists are trying to bring to the surface ancient items to go through DNA testing. While speaking to the press, Scorsese made a joke about the origins of his surname (his original last name has a Z instead of an S, and it’s spelled Scorzese).

Even though Scorsese’s relationship with modern cinema isn’t the best (he’s one of the loudest detractors of franchise cinema), it’s not the same view he has of technology. The Irishman was a film based on visual effects and de-aging, and Hugo was a wonderful experiment in family-friendly cinema with a huge visual effects backdrop. In other words, he understands balance, and in Italy, he spoke of the future of movies and the constant evolution of technology:

“Maybe one day we’ll experience films through a chip implanted in our heads. Imagine
Orlando Furioso
or
Hamlet
in virtual reality. You’d see the Prince of Denmark right in front of you, as if he were real.

But no matter the technology, one thing will always matter: ‘Can you communicate something? Can you tell a story?’ Stories help us understand who we are.”

Martin Scorsese Offers an Opinion on Current American Politics

Speaking to journalists in Italy, Scorsese also addressed the current state of American politics, and more specifically, he talked about the upcoming U.S. elections. He doesn’t exactly stand on one side, but he offers a comical metaphor related to one of his best films, Gangs of New York:

“When we filmed
Gangs of New York
at Cinecittà [the large movie studio in Rome], we depicted a violent, bloody 19th-century America, with a brutal character — Bill the Butcher, played by Daniel Day-Lewis. People like him are showing up again. We don’t know what’s going to happen in a few weeks. Democracy could continue, or this experiment could end.

I never thought I’d live through a moment like this. It reminds me of Federico Fellini, who, while filming
Satyricon
, said as he walked through Rome: ‘I feel like I’m back in ancient Roman times.’ Now I feel like we’re back in the world of
Gangs of New York
, a film about violent clashes between immigrant ethnic groups fighting for control of New York and, metaphorically, America.”