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E-book Martin Scorsese's Divine Comedy : Movies and Religion

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Penilaian

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A statue of a Madonna and Child in a New York kitchen appears in the opening shot of Martin Scorsese’s Who’s Th at Knocking at My Door (1967–9); and the fi nal image of Silence (2016) is of a handmade crucifi x glowing in the fl ames of a crematory fi re in seventeenth-century Japan. It is inarguable that there is a Catholic dimension to Scorsese’s fi lmography that can be traced from the Marian icon in his fi rst full-length feature right through to his movie about Jesuit priests that was released around fi ft y years later. With due respect paid to the scale of the task, the following chapters engage with that particular cinematic trajectory and take seriously the oft -quoted words of the director himself: ‘My whole life has been movies and religion. Th at’s it. Nothing else.’ Scorsese was born in 1942, educated by the Sisters of Charity and received his religious instruction before the mood of aggiornamento that was heralded by Pope John XXIII’s instigation of Vatican II (the Second Vatican Council of 1962–5), which was an eff ort to modernize the Catholic Church. Indeed, religion(s) played a role in the young boy’s life, even down to the fact that his father Charles earned pragmatic money by lighting the stoves for his Jewish neighbours on the Sabbath. Although a cradle Catholic himself, Scorsese does not recall his parents being particularly devout, although he once revealed that ‘there were cardinals, way back when’ on his mother’s side of the family (in Wilson 2011 : 91). However, he clarifi es that his mother and father ‘were working out how one lives a good life on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis, with responsibilities, and obligations and decency’ (in Martin 2016 ). Many critics muse over the detail that Scorsese was an altar boy at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mott Street – the fi rst Catholic cathedral for the diocese of New York (and now a basilica) – that was only one block away from his family’s home in Little Italy. In those days the Mass was in Latin and the altar server recited the responses. Fr Principe, a diocesan priest whose infl uence on the young Martin Scorsese is repeatedly acknowledged by the director himself, once explained the overwhelming eff ect of the dramatic liturgy on his protégé ‘in this very large church with this absolutely mind-boggling, beautiful sanctuary, with these magnifi cent statues and magnifi cent organ’ (in Wernblad 2011 : 18). Scorsese talks about his interest in the drama of Holy Week, which he would eventually strive to capture in Th e Last Temptation of Christ (1988); and he has now adapted the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo (1923–96), a writer who has been characterized as ‘a Holy Saturday author describing the darkness of waiting for Easter light to break into our world’ ( Fujimura 2016 ). Before the young Scorsese was ‘discharged’ from his duties (reportedly because he was late for Mass), he served at a number of funerals, and he evidently gained an early introduction to the rituals of death – a memory that he incorporates into Th e Departed (2006) when the young Colin Sullivan (Conor Donovan) swings the thurible of incense during a Requiem Mass.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

201.6 OBR m

Penerbit

London : Bloomsbury Academic., 2018

Deskripsi Fisik

226 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781350003309

Klasifikasi

201.6

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Religions and Secular Disciplines

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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