Please note / rest assured: Each of these films is under an hour long.
Italianamerican (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1974)
“The delight is in the couple’s particular dynamic — the playful, blunt Catherine eager to be the star and Charles’ eagerness to let her have the spotlight...”
As chosen by Wayne as part of the TPFC 10th Anniversary Celebrations!
Shot on 16mm film in the Manhattan apartment on Elizabeth Street where he grew up, ItalianAmerican is the record of a conversation between Scorsese and his parents, Charles and Catherine. Their frank and convivial discussions cover life in Post-War Italy, the struggles of tenement life for Italian immigrants in New York City, their opinions on their son's chosen career and, of course, the Scorsese family recipe for meatball sauce. Affectionate, moving and often hilarious Italianamerican is a short and sweet look at the family life of one the all time great directors.
No trailer available. But here’s a short clip. (Note: the quality of the finished documentary is better than the below clip!)
Life Lessons (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1989)
“Although Scorsese’s film begins before the director is identified, there’s not a moment’s doubt whose work it is. His restless nature is obvious from the first shots...”
As chosen by Wayne as part of the TPFC 10th Anniversary Celebrations!
Nick Nolte plays Lionel Dobie - an acclaimed New York artist who finds he is unable to paint without the sturm und drang generated by his on-off-I-said-OFF! relationship with beautiful younger assistant Rosanna Arquette. Released the same year as Goodfellas as one third of the anthology film New York Stories (along with Woody Allen’s great Oedipus Wrecks and Francis Ford Coppola's frankly awful Life Without Zoe) and with a screenplay by Richard Price and a great early performance from Steve Buscemi, Life Lessons is a genuinely lost gem in Scorsese’s cannon (& some of us over here at TPFCHQ would even call it Top Tier Scorsese) and one that deserves to be seen by a wider audience.
No trailer available. But here’s a short clip.
