Martin Scorsese encourages losing the fear of technology

Martin Scorsese (New York, 1942), one of the world’s most influential filmmakers, pledged this Tuesday at the Berlinale, which awarded him the honorary Golden Bear this year, that he lost his fear of technology and put it to the service of the “individual voice” in cinema .

“The technology “it changes so quickly that the only thing you can latch on to is the individual voice, and that voice can be expressed in the same way on TikTok, in a four-hour movie or in a miniseries,” the director of titles such as ‘Taxi Driver’ (1975), ‘Enraged bik’ (1980) or ‘Goodfellas’ (One of Ours, 1990).

“I don’t think cinema is dying, cinema is transforming,” he continued. “That technology Let’s not be afraid, let’s not enslave it, let’s control it and direct it in the right direction, at the service of the voice of the individual”, he asked with applause in the crowded conference hall.

Scorsese got it Honorary Golden Bear at the ceremony, after which ‘The Departed’ (2006), a film with Matt Damon, Leonardo di Caprio and Jack Nicholson, for which he won the Oscar for best film after nine nominations, will be shown.

This year, he received 10 nominations for the Oscar, which will be awarded on March 10, for ‘Moon Killers’, including best film and best director.

At the press conference where every journalist used their own intervention to express his deep admiring the director, and one even asking him for permission to perform a scene from ‘The Departed’ (and he did), Scorsese made it clear what, in his view, the role of film festivals was.

“Pay attention to these new voices individual and artistic“, he insisted. “You can watch a movie once and remember it for the rest of your life, and I’m not saying that you remember in a nostalgic sense, but it has an impact on your way of looking at life, others and your behavior,” He said.

He spoke about the work he has been doing since then to preserve cinematography Film Foundation and recalled how it’s a passion that goes back to his early days, when he and Brian de Palma, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Schrader, the group he grew up with, recommended movies to each other and copies were often hard to come by.

And although on this occasion respected It was him and he talked about his cinematography and what influenced others, he assured that he never thinks about it.

“Maybe when you’re younger, with more ego and ambition, you don’t lose ambition, but you don’t lose ego… maybe you don’t lose, even if you try,” he declared with his characteristic speed and sense of humor when speaking.

“The more people tell me these things, the more I reject them,” he said, because it’s about trying to start from scratch with each film. “It’s great to break free from the constraints of how something should be, because your biggest problem is yourself.”

As for the role of criticism, he believes that it can still be relevant for guiding young people in times when all the world’s cinematography is at hand. “What is modern dies in a day, stronger values ​​must be instilled,” he said.

And about his recent meeting with the Pope in Vatican revealed that they had formed a relationship after ‘Silencio’ (2016), his film about two Jesuit priests in 17th-century Japan, was viewed by Pope Francis at the Vatican.

“We talked about fresh ways to approach Christianity, which is a topic I’m interested in,” said Scorsese, who declined to give many details about his next feature project based on the life of Jesus Christ.

“It’s an idea that’s always been there, I’m interested in Catholicism,” he said, “but I’m still thinking about what kind of film I want to make, it will be something unique and different, provocative and fun.”

The 74th Berlinale also hosts the world premiere of ‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger’, a documentary directed by David Hinton and produced and narrated by Scorsese for the BBC, in the style of his legendary series on American cinema in the 90s.

Scorsese examines title by title, stopping at the most significant scenes, the films of Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988) that he discovered as a child and that marked his way of watching and making films, from ‘ The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’ to ‘Black Narcissus’ or ‘Red Shoes’.