Programme

The course retraces the different phases of Martin Scorsese's career, ranging from his early student shorts to his first feature films during the New Hollywood period, from his more mature works to his vast documentary production. The constant themes and stylistic metamorphoses of Scorsese's work, a filmmaker poised between modernism and postmodernism, will be discussed in relation to the critical-theoretical reflections on his work that has developed over time. Through the analysis of films and sequences, we will investigate Scorsese's directing in connection with the developments of film language and technology, and the different strategies adopted in relation to the often pressing and censorious demands of the producers. Specific aspects that will be emphasized include: the recurrence of the theme of the double, the reflection on Italian-American identity, the cinephilia that runs through the author's entire production, the relationship with the urban space of New York, the importance of the musical and religious dimensions of Scorsese's inspiration.

Provisional filmography: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990), The Age of Innocencde (1993), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Irishman (2018), all directed by Martin Scorsese.

Core Documentation

Lorenzo Marmo (a cura di), "Martin Scorsese", Venezia, Marsilio 2025 (forthcoming)

Attendance

In person classes, attendance not mandatory.

Type of evaluation

The students will be evalued through a written exam, consisting of open-ended questions. The language of the exam will be Italian. Exceptionally, Erasmus students may take the test in English. The exam will verify the students' knowledge of both the text and the films in the filmography.