The Scorsese Machine (1988)

Here’s a fascinating documentary I unearthed during a recent expedition through the digital steppes of youtube, shot for German TV in 1988 this is an hour-long look at Scorsese’s offices and working methods as he was crafting his segment of 1990’s New York Stories,  just as he was coming off the shoot of The Last Temptation of Christ and presumably as he was prepping Goodfellas. It takes a while to get going, the old motor mouth himself doesn’t really achieve top gear until part 3 but nevertheless this is a mesmerizing peak into the auteur’s working habits and urban environment some twenty-five years ago;

For the truly cinema obsessed below is the most amusing section, where we see how a pre-digital versatile disk and pre computerised cinephile satisfies his celluloid cravings, by employing an assistant to catalogue and update his bestiary of 8,000 films with weekly instructions on what to tape off the TV in the possible chance of capturing a higher quality print or transfer of any number of pictures – what a job and one assumes that such a volume of material puts your Blu-Ray / DVD collection to shame. I’m guessing you could add a zero to the current dimensions of that tally given a further quarter century of acquisitions;

An earlier section where Scorsese is mulling over the announcement of the (then) new plans for the TCM movie network reminds of an impatient child awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus, as the news that the organisation have struck some new and vivid prints of some overlooked classics for transmission is a eye-watering prospect. For the Scorsese aficionados at the end there is also some terrific footage of Marty having dinner with his folks, with all the expected hilarity and story-telling that ensues – classic stuff;

I also liked the impromptu feel of the likes of Screenwriter Jay Cocks, voyeuristic pervert Brian De Palma and English renegade Michael Powell just popping round for a coffee, you don’t get this ‘behind the scenes’ sort of access these days. In other news, here is an insiders take on one of Stanley K’s less obvious and perhaps less salubrious legacies….