Martin Scorsese

American award-winning film director who is known for his attraction to the seamy side of life. Scorsese is considered to be one of the most influential American filmmakers of our time. His films belong to a variety of genres including his better-known dramatic pieces, musical drama, documentaries, biopics, and epics with themes that usually involve alienation, desperation, violence, or betrayal. Although he is best known as a director, he has produced a number of films and occasionally makes cameo appearances as an actor. A serious student of film he is intent on preserving the best of the silver screen.

Raised in the New York tenements, Scorsese was a sickly kid whose asthma frequently kept him indoors. He and his parents often escaped to the movies, and the young boy became fascinated with the silver screen. An altar boy at his neighborhood Catholic church, he entered the seminary to become a priest but dropped out after a year. He enrolled in the New York film school where he made prize-winning student shorts. Earning his master’s degree in 1968 at New York University, he went on to become an instructor in the university’s film department. Here he directed his first feature released in 1969: “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” After moving to Hollywood where he worked on “Boxcar Bertha,” he assembled his memories of growing up in the hard-edged community of Little Italy in New York. “Mean Streets” in 1973 was the successful result. “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” in 1974 brought him acclaim as well, but it wasn’t until 1976 that he hit the big time with "Taxi Driver," starring Robert DeNiro, a fellow New Yorker.

His work is often controversial, and "The Last Temptation of Christ" provoked the most heated debate of all his films, incurring threats of boycotts from Christian groups. With films such as "Raging Bull," “Goodfellas” and a remake of “Cape Fear” to his name, violence is a major motif in his work.