Scorsese is driven to make film; can't write, hates shooting film, loves editing:
Scorsese enjoys the money and the effects it enables him to create, but not the ensuing commercial pressures that demand films with so little dialogue a Hispanic illegal with six words of English can still follow the plot. "I'm drawn constantly to projects that need a sizeable budget. For that money, what can I give them? Everyone is on a tightrope."
He admits he became "obsessional" about Gangs of New York in 2002, which went over its $97m budget and lost millions; no other director would have been so indulged. Much as the film world loves "Marty", some will tell you privately he can be a nightmare to work with: "Tinker, tinker, tinker," says one. [...]
"You say 'I've got to make a film, it's what I do'. And when you make one, you want to be allowed to make a few more." [...]
There is no hint of retirement, because he is obsessed, just like Hughes [whom his 2004 film The Aviator is about]. "I wish I did know something more than movies so as I could make a living, I wish I could write; I envy Woody Allen that. But I do have an obsession with the actual moving image. I hate shooting, there are too many people on set and too many things can go wrong." But alone in the editing suite is the nearest he feels to life having purpose.
(You wonder what his long-term editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, would make of that "alone in the editing suite".)
More: Times: Oscar blues. Compare to Walter Murch, who stands when he edits.
More how we work.
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