Mark Kermode on Martin Scorsese’s Passion for British Cinema

This weekend, the BFI Southbank in London kicks off a film series titled “Martin Scorsese Selects Hidden Gems of British Cinema.” Among the highlights are Terence Fisher’s “To the Public Danger” (1948) and “Stolen Face” (1952), Roy Ward Baker’s “Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde” (1971), John Hough’s “The Legend of Hell House” (1973), and a rare nitrate-print screening of Alberto Cavalcanti’s 1942 film, “Went the Day Well?”.

The fact that a filmmaker with an extraordinary resume including “Taxi Driver” (1973), “Raging Bull” (1980), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), “Casino” (1995), “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2022) should curate such a season is remarkable. However, Scorsese has always been a film enthusiast as much as a filmmaker, and the movies he champions hold significant importance to him.

Anyone with an interest in film studies should check out the watchable 1995 documentary “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.” Co-created with writer-director Michael Henry Wilson and produced by the BFI, this three-part documentary features Scorsese exploring the role of the director as a storyteller, illusionist, smuggler, and iconoclast. From Charlie Chaplin and DW Griffith to Sam Peckinpah and Stanley Kubrick, it’s a tribute to the filmmakers Scorsese admires while underscoring the necessity of studying old movies to enrich one’s creative palette.

Scorsese’s 2024 documentary “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,” created with David Hinton, equally blends historical and personal anecdotes. Scorsese recounts his early encounters with films like “The Red Shoes,” a Technicolor marvel he would watch repeatedly on black-and-white TV. He provides a captivating account of Powell and Pressburger classics such as “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945), “A Matter of Life and Death” (1946), “Black Narcissus” (1947), and “The Tales of Hoffmann” (1951). Scorsese also uses clips from his own films to highlight the influences he drew from Powell and Pressburger.

“As a director, you want to possess the people on film. You want to live through them, in a way,” Scorsese once said.

In one fascinating sequence, Scorsese explains how Michael Powell pulls away from a duel between two key characters in “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.” This technique inspired Scorsese to do the same in the depiction of Jake LaMotta’s championship fight in “Raging Bull,” where the focus shifts from the fight to the build-up and aftermath. It’s not the battle that matters, but what comes before and after.

Scorsese was instrumental in restoring Powell’s reputation after the harsh critical rejection of the 1960 chiller “Peeping Tom,” a film Scorsese describes as a “film maudit” (literally, a cursed film). Scorsese helped get “Peeping Tom” into the New York Film Festival in 1979, paving the way for its reappraisal as a modern masterpiece. Powell, who later married Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, described the film’s rebirth as akin to hearing “the cries of a newborn baby.”

“All this filming isn’t healthy,” a line from “Peeping Tom” goes. Scorsese recounted how a friend sent him that line when he was making “Raging Bull.” He acknowledged that filmmaking can be aggressive and almost pathological, where one seeks to possess the souls of people on film. It’s an unquenchable desire for control and expression. When interviewed in 2010 for the Observer, Scorsese instinctively took on the role of director even while being interviewed, showcasing his natural inclination towards filmmaking.

For his BFI season, the idea originated from a voicemail Scorsese sent to British filmmaker Edgar Wright, who casually asked about his favourite British films growing up. Being a true cinephile, Scorsese’s response could put many professional film programmers to shame. “Watching the list was like completing a jigsaw puzzle,” Wright remarked, noting that Scorsese’s recommendations included lesser-known films from famous directors and offbeat gems that might have otherwise been overlooked.

While Scorsese is undoubtedly one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, his role as a cinematic historian and passionate advocate for cinema might be his most enduring legacy.

Martin Scorsese Selects Hidden Gems of British Cinema is at BFI Southbank, London, 1 September-8 October.

Source: The Guardian, Observer