Plot
The film begins with framing device, wherein Scorsese, playing himself, describing how he discovered three and a half pages of an unproduced Alfred Hitchcock film, "The Key to Reserva". As part of this film preservation work he plans to film the script as Hitchcock would have filmed it.
The film, which contains no dialogue, shows Roger Thornberry (Simon Baker) arriving at a box seat during an orchestra performance. He sees a key hidden with the box's light bulb, and goes to retrieve it. He is noticed by one of the performers, Leonard, who signals to his accomplice Louis Bernard (Michael Stuhlbarg), who is holding Roger's wife Grace hostage in the audience. Leonard then goes to stop Roger. The two fight and Leonard falls from the box seat, presumably to his death. Roger uses the key to open a locked case which contains a bottle of Freixenet with top secret files hidden inside.
The film abruptly stops, as Scorsese explains that a page is missing, so he simply filmed the concluding paragraph of the script which shows Louis Bernard arrested, as Roger and his wife reunite over a glass of Freixenet.
Scorsese then discusses with the interviewer possible future projects. The camera pans back to reveal Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, and the interviewer in an office in a tower block, meanwhile crows flock around the building.
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, four British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. Scorsese has received various honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. The film, distributed by United Artists, stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, an Italian-American middleweight boxer whose self-destructive and obsessive rage, jealousy and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, LaMotta's well-intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons, and Cathy Moriarty as his wife. Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent all play supporting roles in the film.
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film follows Travis Bickle, a veteran working as a taxi driver, and his deteriorating mental state as he works nights in the city.
Michael Latham Powell was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). His later controversial 1960 film Peeping Tom, while today considered a classic, and a contender as the first "slasher", was so vilified on first release that his career was seriously damaged.
Cape Fear is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese as a remake of the 1962 film of the same name which was based on John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel, The Executioners. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker and Juliette Lewis. Robert Mitchum plays a small role in the film, while Gregory Peck and Martin Balsam cameo; all three starred in the original film.
Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 American psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the novel of the same name by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore. The plot depicts the life of a depressed New York City paramedic (Cage). The film was released in the United States on October 22, 1999 by Paramount Pictures in North America, while it was released internationally by Touchstone Pictures through Buena Vista International. It was the final film to be released on LaserDisc in the United States.
After Hours is a 1985 American black comedy thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Joseph Minion. The film follows Paul Hackett, portrayed by Griffin Dunne, as he experiences a series of misadventures while making his way home from New York City's SoHo district during the night.
The Departed is a 2006 American epic crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Winter Hill Gang; the character Colin Sullivan is based on the corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, while the character Frank Costello is based on Irish-American gangster Whitey Bulger. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles.
Jack Cardiff, was a British cinematographer, film and television director, and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor, to filmmaking more than half a century later.
Thelma Schoonmaker is an American film editor, known for her over fifty years of work with director Martin Scorsese. She started working with Scorsese on his debut feature film Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), and has edited all of Scorsese's films since Raging Bull (1980). Schoonmaker has received eight Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing, and has won three times—for Raging Bull, The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006), which were all Scorsese-directed films.
Psycho is a 1998 American psychological horror film produced and directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Anne Heche. It is a modern remake of the 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in which an embezzler arrives at an old motel run by a mysterious man named Norman Bates. Both films are adapted from Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name.
What's a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Place like This? is a 1963 American black-and-white short comedy-drama film created by Martin Scorsese while he studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. It is a story about a writer who becomes obsessed with a picture on his wall. The film stars Zeph Michaelis, Mimi Stark, Sarah Braveman, Fred Sica, and Robert Uricola.
Harris Savides was an American cinematographer. Notable films include Gus Van Sant's "young death" trilogy, and the Van Sant films Milk, Finding Forrester, and Restless; David Fincher's The Game, Zodiac, and the opening title sequence in Seven; Martin Scorsese's short film The Key to Reserva; Wong Kar Wai's short film The Follow; Ridley Scott's American Gangster; Woody Allen's Whatever Works; Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and The Bling Ring; Noah Baumbach's Greenberg and Margot at the Wedding; and John Turturro's Illuminata.
Hugo is a 2011 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, and adapted for the screen by John Logan. Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it tells the story of a boy who lives alone in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris in the 1930s, only to become embroiled in a mystery surrounding his late father's automaton and the pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès.
Marlo Poras is an American filmmaker.
Susan Elaina Morse is an American film editor with more than 30 film credits. She had a notable collaboration with director Woody Allen from 1977 to 1998. Their collaboration led to a nomination for the Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and to five nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing (for Manhattan, Zelig, Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. She was nominated, as well, for an Emmy Award for her editing of the "Daddy's Girlfriend " episode of the popular FX series Louie.
Michael Stewart Stuhlbarg is an American actor. He is known as a character actor having portrayed a variety of roles in film, television and theatre. He has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Drama Desk Award. He has also received numerous award nominations including for two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
Ian Christie is a British film scholar. He has written several books including studies of the works of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Martin Scorsese and the development of cinema. He is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine and a frequent broadcaster. Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London.
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff is a 2010 documentary film that explores the work of the cinematographer Jack Cardiff. It reviews his work and with the input of many of his contemporaries, examines his legacy as one of the most influential film makers in the world and details how he became master of the Technicolor process. The film includes interviews with Cardiff as well as Martin Scorsese, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Lauren Bacall, Kim Hunter, Kathleen Byron, John Mills, Alan Parker, Richard Fleischer and many others.
Silence is a 2016 epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and with a screenplay by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, and Ciarán Hinds. The plot follows two 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel from Portugal to Edo-era Japan via Macau to locate their missing mentor and spread Catholic Christianity. The story is set in a time when it was common for the faith's Japanese adherents to hide from the persecution that resulted from the suppression of Christianity in Japan after the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–1638) against the Tokugawa shogunate. These are now called the kakure kirishitan, or "hidden Christians". It is the second filmed adaptation of Endō's novel, following a 1971 film of the same name.
