Born in New York in 1942, Martin Scorsese today celebrates his 80th birthday. His Italian origins – his grandparents left the province of Palermo to cross the ocean in search of a better life in the early 20th century – have influenced his cinematic vision, making him one of the most appreciated directors in the world. His most prestigious awards include: the 2007 Best Director Oscar for The Departed (the film won four OscarsÒin total including Best Film); the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Canes Film Festival for Taxi Driver and a Golden Lion for Career Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 1995.
A childhood spent in the working-class neighbourhoods of the East side of New York –in particular, Little Italywhich gave him the opportunity of encountering Italian neorealism – where cultural differences were particularly accentuated, plus a meeting with Robert De Niro, also Italian in origin and with a similar cultural background, were determinants in the stories and perspectives of his films and the places he chose to set them.
This would lead to Mean Streets (1973), set in Little Italy where he grew up, the film deals with issues of mafia and religion; Taxi Driver, which won nominations across the board at the 1976 OscarsÒ and Cannes Film Festival; Raging Bull (1980), a portrait of Jake La Motta, Italo-American boxer from the Bronx; through to The Irishman, released by Netflix in 2019, which deals with many of his dearest themes.
Italy could not be excluded. In 2001 the New York of the mid-1800s was built in Cinecittà: an imposing set, designed by the great Dante Ferretti, giving life to Five Points, one of the most degraded areas of the city rife with crime, prostitution and gambling and the setting for violent fights between criminal gangs for control of the territory. Gangs of New York, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (also Italian in origin, he and Scorsese have a strong working relationship) and Daniel Day-Lewis as vengeful rivals was shot at the famous Roman studios on via Tuscolana.
“My name is Jordan Belfort. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which drove me crazy - three more and I would have averaged a million per week”: in 2013 he shot The Wolf of Wall Street with DiCaprio as a merciless New York broker whose excesses lead to his ruin. In addition to New York, the film shot in Liguria, in the famous village of Portofino, the Cinque Terre and Chiavari.