Martin Scorsese Trivia

1. Martin Scorsese worked on a number of films before having artistic control of "Mean Streets" (1972) that became his first major success. What two actors had their first major success also in this film?

From Quiz The Directors: Martin Scorsese

Answer: Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro

Charlie (Harvey Keitel) works as a middle rank mobster for his uncle but is not always pleased with his assignments. He also is protective of his friend Johnnie (Robert De Niro) who is a loose cannon in the organization. This dissonance leads to a violent conclusion. In a televised interview Scorsese denied that the film was autobiographical; however, he did admit that the screenplay that he co-authored was based on many of the incidents that he knew happened or were legends of the streets. "Mean Streets" has a 96% freshness rating from Rotten Tomatoes web site.

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Answer: Goodfellas

"Goodfellas" was Martin Scorsese's 1990 movie about life in Mafia families. It followed the story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish mobster who wanted to join the mob because they got dates with the best looking women and waiters always seemed to know their names. Joe Pesci played Tommy DeVito, a robber with a hair-trigger temper. The quote is from a scene in a restaurant where someone made an offhand remark about DeVito being a funny guy and he took it the wrong way before cooling down (in a schizophrenic way). DeVito did not survive until the end of the film. Scorsese, born in Queens, New York and growing up in New York City's Little Italy section, frequently emphasized the grittier side of city life in his movies. He apparently was drawn to scripts that paralleled his life observations.

From Quiz The Directing History of Martin Scorsese

Answer: What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

It's a very good short film that lasts about 9 minutes. It was made in 1963. "The Big Shave" is a documentary that is a metaphor of a war. "The Picture on the Wall" is the only one I made up. Believe it or not, Mr. Scorsese was going to be a priest but decided to go into cinema. That's kind of funny because quite a few of his films feature gang violence and such. He attended New York University's Film School. He made a quite a few short films there.

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Answer: Civil War

Set mostly in the 1860s, "Gangs of New York" was about native-born New York gang members and Irish-immigrant gangs. The New York draft riots of 1863 (U.S. Civil War) brought federal troops to the city; in the movie the gangs were decimated by the soldiers. Based on Herbert Asbury's non-fiction book of the same name, Scorsese directed Leonardo DeCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz in the movie which was nominated for ten Academy Awards, though ultimately winning none.

From Quiz Scoring with Scorsese

Answer: dressed in white

One of Scorsese's trademarks as a director is to have his blonde actresses first appear in a film dressed in white, and having an angelic look. Stone was the only person in focus as she walked on in a sequined white dress in "Casino" (1995). In "Taxi Driver" (1976), Cybil Shepherd's character also stood out in white. There is unconfirmed speculation that it may be a tip-of-the-hat to Alfred Hitchcock.

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Answer: Raging Bull

"Raging Bull" was based on the story of professional boxer Jake LaMotta, nicknamed Raging Bull. It was the story of a fighter who was emotionally and sexually insecure, living a violent life in and out of the boxing ring and his eventual self-forgiveness. Robert De Niro played LaMotta, a then-unknown Joe Pesci played his brother Joey, and Cathy Moriarty, another unknown actor whom Pesci recommended for the part played Vickie, LaMotta's eventual wife. Documented accounts relate Scorsese's cocaine addiction during this period and how De Niro convinced him to give up drugs and focus on making this picture. Scorsese thought it might be the last film he would ever direct and so put his full talent into making it. The movie was shot in black and white, using unusual camera angles and techniques. It received eight Academy Award nominations, including those for De Niro as Best Actor, Moriatry as Best Supporting Actress and Scorsese for Best Director. De Niro won his category and Thelma Schoonmaker won for the film in the Best Editing category. Over the years it has been named to many top 100, and some top 10, movie lists by film critics and organizations.

From Quiz The Directing History of Martin Scorsese

Answer: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

He made this film to prove that he could make quality films with a female leading role. He proved it. Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Diane Ladd was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

From Quiz The Directors: Martin Scorsese

Answer: The Age of Innocence

Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is engaged to marry May Welland (Winona Ryder). However, her cousin comes back from Europe bringing with her a rather shady reputation. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Ellen Olenska. Archer and Olenska begin an affair that is on and off for many years. May knows of the affair but confronts him only by talking around the subject. Newland and May have three children. After May's death, his son locates Ellen but Newland walks away not wanting, apparently, to rekindle the relationship. Perhaps this is not the poorest film that Scorsese directed but by far the dullest. Re-watching this in preparation for this quiz submission, as I did for several of these films, I found my mind wandering and could not sustain a focus. However, it did receive five Oscar nominations winning only for costume design. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 83% and the reviews were quite mixed. The three wrong answers were all Merchant Ivory productions.

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Answer: The Hustler

"The Color of Money" was Martin Scorsese's first attempt at mainstream filmmaking. It starred Paul Newman, reprising his role as "Fast Eddie" Felson from the 1961 movie "The Hustler" in which the character wanted to prove himself the best pool hustler by beating the legendary "Minnesota Fats", played by Jackie Gleason. In this movie Tom Cruise played the part of an up-and-coming pool hustler who Felson took on the road to teach him how to hustle more profitable pool games. Scorsese used camera tricks which he ascribed to learning from the 1947 film "Black Narcissus". The movie received generally good reviews and raised Scorsese's image in Hollywood. It was nominated for four Oscars; after several nominations, Paul Newman finally won an Oscar for Best Actor in this film.

From Quiz The Directors: Martin Scorsese

Answer: Five Points

In spite of the Oscar snub, "Gangs of New York" was on the list of most of the prominent film societies either as a nominee or winner. Daniel Day-Lewis for lead actor or Scorsese as director were the most frequently noted. The film is set in mid-century about 1840-1862. Gang law was the only law in many parts of the city. Private fire departments, for instance, were controlled by the gangs and fights between gangs broke out should two gangs be called to a single fire. Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) has returned to the dangerous Five Points area. His goal is to bring revenge on the murderer of his father - Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). Scorsese's pursuit of accuracy was elusive. Starting first there were no neighborhoods in New York that reflected how the city might have looked like in the 1860s. A mile long set was built just outside Rome, Italy that stood in for the Five Points. A lot of study went into linguistics to capture accurate speech patterns. Actors read ballads and diaries of the time. They found an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word "Earth" as "Uth", and the "a" of "an" nasal and flat, like "ayan". Counting domestic and foreign box office, the costly film broke even. Reviews were mixed and had an aggregate of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Answer: Shutter Island

Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Scorsese's "Shutter Island", a fictitious island in Boston harbor upon which there was a hospital for the criminally insane. The movie concerns DiCaprio's character, a U.S. marshal, trying to find out the truth about some people who have gone missing from the institution. Scorsese acknowledged Otto Preminger's "Laura" as influential in his directing of the movie; other people see likenesses to some of Alfred Hitchcock's movies.

From Quiz The Directing History of Martin Scorsese

Answer: New York, New York

This film was actually a musical. It doesn't sound like Scorsese to make a musical. It also used a cheap backdrop. It looked like a '20s themed movie. Eventually De Niro convinced Scorsese to start to make films again.

From Quiz The Directors: Martin Scorsese

Answer: The Aviator

"Melvin and Howard" (1980) was more admired by critics than audiences but did yield a Supporting Actress Oscar for Mary Steenburgen. But it was a fantasy with little about Howard Hughes. Out of several books on Hughes, the 1993 non-fiction book "Howard Hughes: The Secret Life" by Charles Higham was chosen as it best depicted Hughes' obsessive-compulsive disorder. The film traces Hughes' career from his business days, his contributions to aviation, his dominance of RCA film studios, his notable relationships, and his descent into reclusiveness and surrender to OCD. One fascinating feature of the film is the supporting roles played by actors recreating some of the most charismatic and talented personalities of Hollywood such as Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, Jude Law as Errol Flynn, Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, and Kelli Garner as Faith Domergue. The film received 11 Oscar nominations and five wins for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Cate Blanchett.

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Answer: Cape Fear

Robert Mitchum, who played the main character in the 1962 film, portrayed a county sheriff in the 1991 remake of "Cape Fear". The story concerned a man sentenced to prison for rape who sought revenge on his attorney after his release. Gritty and violent in Scorsese fashion, we followed along as character Max Cady (Robert De Niro) preyed upon lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family. The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards.

From Quiz The Directing History of Martin Scorsese

Answer: The Last Waltz

Scorsese actually filmed the concert and made it into a documentary. There were also many special guests at the concert such as Ringo Starr, Neil Diamond, and Eric Clapton. Afterwards he went on to make one of his best films, "Raging Bull". I hoped you like this quiz.

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Answer: Jesus Christ

Controversial even before it was released, "The Last Temptation of Christ" marked Martin Scorsese's return to the non-commercial, personal style of filmmaking he had become famous for. Based on the (also controversial) novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, Willem Dafoe played the part of the conflicted, self-doubting Jesus Christ. Much of the criticism centered on the character's hallucination, while on the cross, of being married to Mary Magdalene and having a family. (In years to come this theme would become very popular, due in large part to Dan Brown's use of it in his book "The DaVinci Code".) Raised as a Roman Catholic, Scorsese had wanted to do a film about Christ since he was a boy. The film viewed Christ as primarily human rather than supernatural. Despite the controversy it was critically well-received by film reviewers and some religious leaders, but one film critic called it "poisonous morally and spiritually...worthless".

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Answer: Dalai Lama

Kundun means 'presence' in the Tibetan language and the film is about Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama; Kundun was the nickname (if you will) of the first Dalai Lama. The movie was from a script by Melissa Mathison; you may be familiar with her best-known work which became the movie "E.T." "Kundun" is a chronological tale of the finding and coming of age of Tenzio Gyatso. Typically, Scorsese paid scant attention to the effect the movie would have on the Chinese government, whose army had invaded Tibet looking for the Dalai Lama resulting in his exile to India. The Walt Disney company wasn't so facile; they were the distributor of the film and it caused them many headaches as they were preparing for a major expansion into China. At first standing behind the film, Disney eventually equivocated, hurting the film's commercial success. While it initially enhanced Scorsese's reputation, when the dust settled it was considered a detour from Scorsese's usual style and success.

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Answer: The Aviator

Leonardo DiCaprio once again teamed up with Martin Scorsese in the 2004 film "The Aviator", a biopic about Howard Hughes. The story covered Hughes' life and his worsening obsessive/compulsive disorder, from his inheriting of the family fortune through the development of the Spruce Goose, a huge airplane made of wood and other planes made by the Hughes Aircraft Company. The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Scorsese's fifth nomination for Best Director; it ended up winning five, the top one being Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Hughes' one-time lover; Scorsese failed to win Best Director again.

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Answer: Taxi Driver

As a young director, Martin Scorsese experimented with various film styles and locales. By the mid-1970s he had settled on gritty city life, violence and conflicted, borderline-psychotic leading characters as main elements in his films as was evident in his fifth film "Taxi Driver". A saints and sinners drama about a Vietnam veteran trying to cope with depression and homicidal tendencies, Robert De Niro cemented a place for himself in film history as loner Travis Bickle. His "You talkin' to me?" posturing in front of a mirror has become a most-recognizable movie quote. De Niro had worked with Scorsese before, as had Jodie Foster; her portrayal of a teenaged prostitute was a breakthrough role for her. The film won Academy Award nominations for De Niro and Foster as well as Best Picture and Best Music. Though winning none, it established a style Scorsese would return to again and again in his career and made legitimate stars of De Niro and Foster.

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