Scorsese Summer

Lumiere cinema Maastricht (The Netherlands) had announced they would be doing Scorsese weeks! Sig was over the moon. He really likes the Scorsese movies he has seen, so he definitely wanted to go. Lumiere showed a few movies for a couple of weeks. If you're not sure who Scorcese is: Martin Scorsese is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He's born on November 17th, 1942. Central themes in his movies are often the Sicilian - American identity, mafia, crime, conflict, loyalty. Scorsese directed movies like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and the Wolf of Wall Street. He often casts the same actors in his movies. A lot of his movies have the same actors: Robert DeNiro. But also Leonardo DiCaprio, Victor Argo, Harry Northup and Harvey Keitel. 

Sig and I kicked off by watching Taxi Driver. Taxi Driver is a movie from 1976, starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Cybill Shephard. Travis Bickle is a taxi driver in New York. He's struggling with what he wants and expects from life and all the violence he sees during his work. He falls in love with a woman and tries to help a young prostitute he met during his work. Meanwhile, he tries to figure out what he wants but gets caught up in all the violence and politics. 

I hadn't seen any of the Scorsese movies before that we watched during the Scorsese weeks. And I have to say that I really loved Taxi Driver. It was an excellent start! I'm always happy to see Robert De Niro in a movie. He's such a talented actor. And seeing a movie of him in his younger years was fun. The story of the movie is very strong and kept me focused from beginning to end. Taxi Driver is definitely a classic!  

Raging Bull was the one I was most reluctant to see. As you might now, I don't like boxing movies and I don't enjoy watching black and white movies. It was only because of Sigmund really, really wanted to see this movie that I joined him. In Raging Bull, we basically follow Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) through life and love. And I must admit: I actually enjoyed watching this movie. Despite the fighting and the black & white. 

It's just a very well made movie with excellent actors. Besides Robert De Niro, I also loved Cathy Moriarty, who played Vickie La Motta. SHe plays the role incredible! I really wondered why I haven't heard of her before. Looking at IMDB learns me that she's done quite some movies after Raging Bull. I will look into those! Raging Bull was her first movie. 

The third movie we saw was Mean Streets. It's a 1 hour and 52-minute crime/ drama movie, starring Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval and more actors! For me, this was the least interesting Scorsese movie we watched during these weeks. Of course, Mean Streets is a nice movie.

But I just liked the other ones better. Robert De Niro's character was quite irritating from time to time haha. But the acting is great, as always. It was mainly about Charlie, who wants t work his way up the ranks of the mob. But he finds a lot of struggles along the way. 

This movie was completely different from the other ones. It's a comedy. In the King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) wants to be a comedian. He's stalking his idol, hoping to have a shot at fame. I really loved this movie! I know not everyone counts this movie as one of Scorsese's best. But I do. It was funny, but also shocking. You kind of feel for Rupert when you see him struggling. But he always makes the wrong decisions. What I also love about the movie, is that you don't get to see if Rupert I actually funny for a long time. It's just not about that. It's about making your dreams come true. And what will you do to get what you want? Where will you stop? 

Sigmund and I went to see Goodfellas as the last movie. We went on a Thursday night. But that night, we were mistaken: Goodfellas was playing on Saturday! Not on Thursday. So, we were just standing there ready to go to Goodfellas! But we looked at the screen and realized that we were mistaken. Immediately we decided to watch another movie. We were at the cinema already, so why not pick another movie? We checked out the movies on IMDB and we both really liked the story of Wakefield. That was an easy decision! We were going to see Wakefield. 

But later that week, luckily, we got the chance to watch Goodfellas as well! It was an interesting one! I know, it's a bit weird that I hadn't seen Goodfellas yet. But when you know a bit more about my movie preferences, it's not that weird. I'm (usually) not that much into mob movies. 

Goodfellas had a great cast, just like the other Scorsese movies we watched. Main roles were for Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Lorraine Bracco. In the movie, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is a member of the mob. The movie focusses on his life in the mob and his love life. Touching themes as loyalty, love, ambition, friendship and more. The movie is based on the true story of the bestseller 'Wise Guy' of Nicholas Pileggi. 

These are the Scorsese movies we watched at Lumiere this summer. Of course he directed way more movies. Let us know in the comments, what's your favorite Scorsese movie?