Martin Scorsese's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Image: Nehrams2020/Wikimedia Commons.
Opinion_

The six best Scorsese scenes

1 June 2016

Dr Bruce Isaacs from the Film Studies program on the best scenes from Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

Martin Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the best living film directors. As a major retrospective of his work opens at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Dr Bruce Isaacs from the University of Sydney's Film Studies program dissects six classic Scorsese scenes.

1. Who's That Knocking at My Door

"Scorsese's first major film displays the precocious vision of a major new American filmmaker."

2. Mean Streets

"One the greatest film openings, this is Scorsese mashing realism and a Godardian free-spirited style."

3.     Taxi Driver

"‘You Talkin’ to Me?’ – One of the iconic sequences of the New Hollywood." Watch the video here.  

4.     Raging Bull

"Scorsese's return to an American neo-realism, and one of the greatest of all method performances from De Niro." Watch the video here.

5.     Goodfellas  

"The world of the gangster captured in a glorious steadicam move." Watch the video here.

6.     Hugo

"Scorsese displays the elegance of a 3D digital film style." Watch the video here.

Dr Bruce Isaacs is a senior lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sydney. All videos courtesy of The Conversation.

Jennifer Peterson-Ward

Assistant Media and PR Adviser (Division of Humanities and Social Sciences)