Current:Home > reviewsMartin Scorsese on faith in filmmaking, ‘The Saints’ and what his next movie might be -AssetLink
Martin Scorsese on faith in filmmaking, ‘The Saints’ and what his next movie might be
View
Date:2025-04-15 03:04:05
NEW YORK (AP) — When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York’s Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral.
“Who are these people? What is a saint?” Scorsese recalls. “The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don’t see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?”
For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he’s finally realized it in “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints,” an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media.
The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year.
In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, “The Saints” emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz.
Here are some key quotes from a recent interview with Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday. An expanded version can be found at www.apnews.com/martin-scorsese
On the saints
“It took time to think about that and to learn that, no, the point is that they are human. For me, if they were able to do that, it’s a good example for us. If you take it and put it in a tough world — if you’re in a world of business or Hollywood or politics or whatever — if you’re grounded in something which is a real, acting out of compassion and love, this is something that has to be admired and emulated.”
On Fox Nation
“They went with the scripts. They went with the shoot. They went with the cuts. Now what I think is: Do we take these thoughts or expressions and only express them to people who agree with us? It’s not going to do us any good. I’m talking about keeping an open mind.”
On his faith and cinema
“The filmmaking comes from God. It comes from a gift. And that gift is also involved with an energy or a need to tell stories. As a storyteller, somehow there’s a grace that’s been given to me that’s made me obsessive about that. The grace has been through me having that ability but also to fight over the years to create these films. Because each one is a fight. Sometimes you trip, you fall, you hit the canvas, can’t get up. You crawl over bleeding and knocked around. They throw some water on you and somehow you make it through. Then you go to another.”
On his next film
“(The Life of Jesus) is an option but I’m still working on it. There’s a very strong possibility of me doing a film version of Marilynne Robinson’s “Home,” but that’s a scheduling issue. There’s also a possibility of me going back and dealing with the stories from my mother and father from the past and how they grew up. Stories about immigrants which tied into my trip to Sicily. Right now, there’s been a long period after ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ Even though I don’t like getting up early, I’d like to shoot a movie right now. Time is going. I’ll be 82. Gotta go.”
On recent movies
“There was one film I liked a great deal I saw two weeks ago called “I Saw the TV Glow.” It really was emotionally and psychologically powerful and very moving. It builds on you, in a way. I didn’t know who made it. It’s this Jane Schoenbrun.”
On the election
“Well, of course I have strong feelings. I think you can tell from my work, what I’ve said over the years. I think it’s a great sadness, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity. A real opportunity to make changes ultimately, maybe, in the future, never to despair, and to understand the needs of other people, too. Deep introspection is needed at this point. Action? I’m not a politician. I’d be the worst you could imagine. I wouldn’t know what actions to take except to continue with dialogue and, somehow, compassion with each other. This is what it’s about.”
veryGood! (8575)
Related
- Southern California rocked by series of earthquakes: Is a bigger one brewing?
- Man who killed 3 in English city of Nottingham sentenced to high-security hospital, likely for life
- Colombia declares a disaster because of wildfires and asks for international help
- Transgender veterans sue to have gender-affirming surgery covered by Department of Veteran Affairs
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- Three soldiers among six sentenced to death for coup plot in Ghana
- Thousands in India flock to a recruitment center for jobs in Israel despite the Israel-Hamas war
- Lauren Boebert to argue her case in first Republican primary debate after hopping districts
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Trump could testify as trial set to resume in his legal fight with E. Jean Carroll
Ranking
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- His spacecraft sprung a leak. Then this NASA astronaut accidentally broke a record
- Trump could testify as trial set to resume in his legal fight with E. Jean Carroll
- Think you'll work past 70? Good luck. Why most of us retire earlier.
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
- GOP pressures Biden to release evidence against Maduro ally pardoned as part of prisoner swap
- Antisemitic acts have risen sharply in Belgium since the Israel-Hamas war began
- Thousands take to streets in Slovakia in nationwide anti-government protests
Recommendation
RFK Jr. grilled again about moving to California while listing New York address on ballot petition
Pickleball has taken the nation by storm. Now, it's become a competitive high-school sport
Turkey's parliament approves Sweden's NATO membership, lifting key hurdle to entry into military alliance
Ring will no longer allow police to request doorbell camera footage from users
Tropical rains flood homes in an inland Georgia neighborhood for the second time since 2016
Watch Live: Trial of Jennifer Crumbley, mother of Oxford High School shooter, gets underway
Thousands take to streets in Slovakia in nationwide anti-government protests
Supreme Court allows Alabama to carry out first-ever execution by nitrogen gas of death row inmate Kenneth Smith