Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese, born in Queens in 1942, is one of the central figures of the New Hollywood generation and is widely held to be among the most influential directors in the history of the medium. The accolade list is enormous: a competitive Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmys, a Grammy, three Golden Globes, an honorary Golden Bear, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, a Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films sit in the National Film Registry. He has been making films since the 1960s, beginning with the short The Big Shave in 1967, and has directed features in every decade since.

His method has been imitated so widely that it can be hard to see. The moving camera that behaves like a curious guest, the pop record used as commentary rather than mood, the voiceover that keeps explaining a life while the images quietly contradict it: those are all his, and they exist to produce a specific discomfort. His films tend to seduce you into the company of people you should not admire, then make you notice that you enjoyed it. GoodFellas is the purest version. Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street run the same trick at different volumes.

The other Scorsese is easy to overlook. The Age of Innocence is a costume drama about restraint. Kundun and Silence are films about faith made by someone who takes it seriously. Hugo is a children's film about film preservation. The King of Comedy is a comedy so bleak it took thirty years to be liked. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and The Last Waltz sit outside every generalisation about him.