MARTIN SCORSESE ALL THE FILMS

Marty supreme.

It’s been almost 60 years since Martin Scorsese directed his first feature film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door, and the filmmaker hasn’t slowed down since. In their impressive coffee-table book, Bousquet, Devillard, and Schaller—who previously collaborated on a book about movies based on Stephen King’s fiction—closely examine Scorsese’s extensive body of work, starting with his 1963 short film What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? and continuing through Killers of the Flower Moon, his Oscar-nominated 2023 epic. Each chapter focuses on a different film, and the authors offer behind-the-scenes looks at some of Scorsese’s most beloved movies, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as some of the pictures that divided critics, namely the largely forgotten Boxcar Bertha and the bewildering New York, New York. Reacting to negative reviews of Kundun (1997), about the Dalai Lama, the filmmaker said, “It’s a disgrace. Because some people have a heart big enough to want to help out, the press makes fun of them. An absolute disgrace.” The sections that dig into Scorsese’s recurring themes—among them violence and masculinity and redemption—are the strongest, offering analyses that are insightful without being pedantic. Even Scorsese aficionados will make new discoveries: For example, Robert De Niro’s classic line in Taxi Driver—“You talkin’ to me?”—was improvised by the actor, inspired by something he and Scorsese had heard Bruce Springsteen tell a concert audience in New York. Rich in interview excerpts, and stills, posters, and other images, the book will speak to any film fanatic.

An irresistible celebration of a maverick auteur.