Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the decaying of motion picture film stock.

Scorsese’s body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and violence. Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era, directing landmark films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; all of which he collaborated on with actor Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed and earned an MFA in film directing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Trivia:

Listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Scorsese directed. [19 December 1996]

Awarded third annual John Huston Award for Artists Rights by the Artists Rights Foundation. [1995]

Presented with a special tribute at the 1976 Telluride Film Festival. It was presented by Michael Powell. [1976]

He is a longtime friend and was once a housemate of The Band’s Robbie Robertson. He directed The Last Waltz (1978), the documentary of their supposedly last gig which Robertson produced. Robertson later produced the soundtrack for Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986).

Good friends with editor Thelma Schoonmaker & cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese introduced Thelma to her husband Michael Powell and he often quotes Powell as an influence.

His name is pronounced “Scor-sez-see”.

He directed Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987) (V) music video. The full length video runs 16 minutes and is in both black & white and color. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television.

He appears as attached to his pet white Bichon Frise Zoe as he was to his beloved parents – except Zoe is right beside Marty every day in the office.

Daughter Francesca Scorsese born. [16 November 1999]

John Woo dedicated his action film Dip huet seung hung (1989) (“The Killer”) to Scorsese on a commentary he did for the movie’s DVD.

Daughter Domenica Cameron-Scorsese with Julia Cameron.

Taught both Oliver Stone and Spike Lee at NYU.

Was at one point going to make a movie about the life of comedian Richard Pryor.

He was an altar boy at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was used in his early films I Call First (1967) and Mean Streets (1973). Old St. Patrick’s is also where the baptism scene in The Godfather (1972) took place.

Was at one point slated to direct Clockers (1995), but for reasons that are not entirely clear, handed the directing chores to his onetime NYU student Spike Lee, while staying on as producer. He was also at one point going to direct Little Shop of Horrors (1986) for David Geffen, with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer. He was ultimately uninvolved, but claims that he wanted to shoot the movie in 3-D. It no doubt would have been a loving homage to Roger Corman, for whom he directed Boxcar Bertha (1972).

He took a cameo in his film Taxi Driver (1976) (as a man about to kill his wife) only because the actor who was supposed to play the role was sick on the day the scene was to be shot. Says he is generally uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Has a dog named Silas.

Is the subject of the song “Martin Scorsese” by alternative band King Missile.

Father of actress Cathy Scorsese from his first marriage.

Is of Italian-Sicilian descent.

Has asthma.

Of the three films he’s been trying to make since the mid-1970s, he has done two: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002). The third film, a biopic of Dean Martin called “Dino”, has been on hiatus at Warner Brothers since the late 1990s. Scorsese has a very specific all A-list cast in mind, probably why it has yet to be produced. He wants Tom Hanks to star as Martin, Jim Carrey to play Jerry Lewis, John Travolta to play Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant to play Peter Lawford, and Adam Sandler to play Joey Bishop.

Was voted the 4th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the only living person in the top 5 and the only working film director in the top 10 (Ingmar Bergman being retired as a filmmaker).

Appeared on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000) as a shrill version of himself who comes to regret his decision to cast Larry David as a violent gangster in a movie after David repeatedly ruins the suit he needs to wear as the character.

Several characters in his films refer to the legendary (noir) actor John Garfield, star of the original The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), which is also mentioned.

He was one of three major directors to have been offered the opportunity to direct Schindler’s List (1993) by producer Steven Spielberg, the other two being Roman Polanski and Billy Wilder. Scorsese thought a Jewish filmmaker should direct it; Polanski wasn’t yet ready to deal with the painful subject (having lost his mother in the Holocaust); and Wilder (who was retired and who lost his mother and grandmother in the Holocaust) finally told Spielberg that he should do it himself.

Because so many of his actors win or are nominated for awards, actors are dying to work with him. The film With Friends Like These… (1998) pokes fun at this very real desire.

Both The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002) were personal passions of his that he had wanted to make since the 1970s. When he first starting considering them, Robert De Niro was in his mind to play the lead characters in both (Jesus Christ in “Temptation” and Bill Cutting in “Gangs”). De Niro ultimately turned down the part in “Temptation” and it was decided he was too old to play Cutting by the time that “Gangs” finally went into production.

He has famously collaborated with Robert De Niro in 8 films. Scorsese has said that his creative collaboration with De Niro is very deep and that they can often understand each other without even talking. Their collaboration has had many dry spells (including recently), but Scorsese says he shows almost every script he writes or considers directing to De Niro to see what the actor’s thoughts on them are even when De Niro ultimately has no involvement the film.

Appeared in an “American Express” ad where he goes to pick up photos of his nephew’s birthday party at a drug store, and then proceeds to nervously pick through what’s wrong with each picture while trying to get the clueless photo-lab clerk’s opinion on them. He proceeds to buy more film with an American Express card and calls the people on the pictures saying they need to reshoot. Scorsese says this funny ad is probably the closest he’s come to accurately “playing” himself.

Apart from his legendary work as a filmmaker, he has been a vocal supporter of film preservation for almost three decades. His efforts to create a strong public awareness for the work of film archives include The Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation which he started together with other filmmakers. The Film Foundation regularly partners with the American film archives on the restoration of “lost” or endangered films. With this background he has agreed to serve as Honorary President of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna.

Personally spurns the notion of the “director’s cut” feeling that once a film has been completed, it should not be further altered in any way.

He lost three best director – and best picture – Oscars to leading-man actors turned directors: Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, and Clint Eastwood (Raging Bull (1980) lost to Redford’s Ordinary People (1980); Goodfellas (1990) to Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990); The Aviator (2004) to Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004)). On the only two occasions when he was Oscar-nominated as Best Director in years ending in zero, he was beaten by actors making their directorial debuts (Redford and Costner).

In 1975, he accepted the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” on behalf of Ellen Burstyn, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony. She won for her performance in Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

Has mentioned that he thought Robert De Niro’s best performance under his direction was as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy (1982).

Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” [2005]

His favorite films include: Citizen Kane (1941), The Red Shoes (1948) and Il gattopardo (1963) (“The Leopard”).

Was friend, protégé, and employee of actor-director John Cassavetes.

When asked where audiences would find the next Martin Scorsese, he said to look to Wes Anderson, the young director of Rushmore (1998).

Has directed, as of 2008, 6 biopics: Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997) and The Aviator (2004).

He received a Degree ad honorem in “Cinema, TV and Multimedia Production” from the University of Bologna on 26 November 2005.

Served as mentor to Georgia Lee and invited her to apprentice for Gangs of New York (2002) in Europe.

The 1912 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) heavily influenced Scorsese in the making of his own gangster films Goodfellas (1990), and Gangs of New York (2002). The film was picked by Scorcese for his 2005 tribute at Beaubourg, centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (1977) in Paris, France. Biograph is the oldest movie company in America and in existence today, headed by producer/director Thomas R. Bond II.

Scorsese and Taxi Driver (1976) are, among others, named as inspiration for the Massive Attack debut “Blue Lines”.

He signed a four-year, first-look deal to develop projects with studio executives of Paramount. [November 2006]

The Departed (2006) is the highest-grossing movie of his 40-year career ($132,373,442 (USA)).

The Aviator (2004) was his first movie to gross over $100 million in the U.S.

He has worked with big names of music business: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, ‘Michael Jackson (I)’ and David Bowie.

Directed 17 different actors in Oscar nominated performances: Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis , Cate Blanchett, Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Stone, Diane Ladd,Cathy Moriarty, Juliette Lewis, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Alda and Mark Wahlberg. (Burstyn, De Niro, Newman, Pesci and Blanchett won Oscars for their roles in one of Scorsese’s movies).

When he won his Best Director Oscar for The Departed (2006), he received the award from legendary directors, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. The four were part of the “New Hollywood” movement of the 1970s and combined have 9 Academy Awards and 38 Nominations.

As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Michael Powell’s The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) from a store that only had one copy of the reels. When it wasn’t available the owner told him, “that Romero kid has it,” referring to George A. Romero who was also a big fan of the film. Today, both directors cite the film as a major influence.

Says he was happy with the fact that it took so long for him to win Best Director, because if he had won it earlier, it would have affected his directing and films.

Recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors. Other recipients that year were Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Brian Wilson.

Says the only thing he regrets in his career is that he was only able to make The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) on a small budget although he imagined it to be a grand version.

Was originally going to direct The Honeymoon Killers (1969), but was replaced after a week of shooting.

Served as a guest critic on “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies” (1986) following the death of ‘Gene Siskel’. The episode was “The Best Films of the 90s” in which Roger Ebert cited Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) as one of the best films of the 90s (#3). Scorsese’s full list of his favorite films of the 1990s: 10.) Tie: Malcolm X (1992) and Heat (1995), 9.) Fargo (1996), 8.) Crash (1996), 7.) Bottle Rocket (1994), 6.) Breaking the Waves (1996), 5.) Bad Lieutenant (1992), 4.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 3.) Duo sang (1994) (“A Borrowed Life”), 2.) The Thin Red Line (1998), 1.) Dao ma zei (1986) (“Horse Thief”).

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Resides in New York City. His production offices are located on W. 57th Street in Manhattan.

Attended Cardinal Hayes high school in the Bronx as a young man. Fellow alumni included George Carlin, George Dzundza, Regis Philbin and Jamal Mashburn.

Is a fan of the British Hammer Films series.

A huge fan of Fawlty Towers (1975). He describes the episode “The Germans” as “so tasteless, its hilarious.”.

In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 7 of Scorsese’s films are listed: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Departed (2006).

Haig Manoogian was Scorsese’s mentor at NYU. He eventually produced Scorsese’s first film (I Call First (1967)) and when he died in 1980, Scorsese dedicated Raging Bull (1980) to Manoogian.

Roger Ebert is a great admirer of Scorsese’s work. 14 of Scorsese’s films were given four stars by Ebert (Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shine a Light (2008)), seven of his films are in Ebert’s Great Movies list (“Mean Streets”, “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “After Hours”, “The Last Temptation Of Christ”, “Goodfellas”, and “The Age of Innocence”), and Ebert has written an entire book of his reviews, interviews and essays on Scorsese’s work simply titled “Scorsese By Ebert”.

As of November 10th 2009, five of his films are on the IMDb’s Top 250 Films list: Goodfellas (1990), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Departed (2006), and Casino (1995).

Amazon Specials!

Il va y avoir de l’émeute chez H&M cet automne. En effet, la marque suédoise a réussi à s’allier de nouveau avec une marque de luxe, Jimmy Choo. Cette marque d’accessoires est notamment bien connue chez les stars hollywoodiennes, qui ne jurent que par elle, de Cate Blanchett, à Halle Berry, en passant par Hilary Swank. Souvenez-vous, même dans le film Le Diable s’habille en Prada, vitrine cinématographique du monde de la mode, Anne Hathaway a eu sa paire de Jimmy Choo qui a fini par changer sa vie. Sur tapis rouge, pour être sexy et glamour, il faut donc être en Jimmy Choo.

Grâce à H&M, nous pourrons bientôt nous pavaner également en Jimmy Choo et jouer les stars. Eh oui, à l’automne prochain, le 14 novembre précisément, près de 200 magasins H&M dans le monde proposeront une collection d’accessoires signés Jimmy Choo, des chaussures et des sacs principalement. A noter que c’est la première fois que H&M s’associe à une marque d’accessoires. On ne doute pas que cette opération devrait remporter un énorme succès. En effet, la marque H&M a déjà su se démarquer en proposant dans ses magasins des accessoires mode, chic et pas cher. Avant Jimmy Choo, les collections de Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Comme des garçons, Roberto Cavalli, Victor & Rolf, Kylie Minogue et Madonna ont déjà été de grands succès. Cette fois-ci, H&M mise sur un autre de ses secteurs phares et va ainsi l’étoffer grâce à cette collaboration.
Jimmy Choo ont également planché sur une collection de vêtements pour femme, ainsi que sur des accessoires et chaussures pour homme. Autant dire qu’il y en aura vraiment pour tout le monde.

C’est un immense privilège de rejoindre les grands de la mode qui ont collaboré jusqu’ici avec H&M. Nous sommes ravis de pouvoir créer une collection qui séduira aussi bien les inconditionnelles de la mode que les femmes urbaines et proposera également de superbes pièces pour hommes. Jimmy Choo va offrir à H&M une collection sophistiquée, très mode, glamour et accessible à tous – des pièces idéales pour la fête, à acheter maintenant et à porter  “le grand soir” !

A ainsi confié la fondatrice et présidente de la marque Jimmy Choo, Tamara Mellon.

De son côté, chez H&M, on se réjouit aussi de cette collaboration fructueuse, comme l’explique Margareta van den Bosch, consultante création chez H&M :

Nous adorons les chaussures et sacs Jimmy Choo. Ils sont glamour et sexy et donnent de la classe aux tenues les plus simples. J’aime la façon dont nous avons travaillé avec les vêtements, conçus comme des accessoires venant compléter les chaussures et les sacs, et non l’inverse. Cette collaboration est passionnante car c’est la première fois que nous offrons une collection de chaussures créée par un designer de renom. C’est un plaisir de pouvoir offrir à nos clients des chaussures au design exclusif et de très grande qualité.

Rendez-vous à l’automne prochain, et attention, il n’y en aura peut-être pas pour tout le monde !

The shooting of Hollywood film Indian Summer has reportedly been halted over the portrayal of Jawaharlal Nehru’s friendship with Lady Edwina Mountbatten, wife of India’s last viceroy, Lord Mountbatten.

The government officials are reportedly “assessing” the script to ensure that Nehru’s “friendship” with Edwina in the movie is not shown wrongly.

“Filming of Indian Summer, starring Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant, has been halted while Indian government officials assess the portrayal of Nehru’s “friendship” with the last Vicereine. They are thought to have asked to see the script to ensure the plot is not too salacious,” British newspaper The Telegraph reported quoting sources from movie production.

Directed by ‘Atonement’ filmmaker Joe Wright and produced by Universal Pictures, the film reportedly depicts Nehru and Edwina as secret and passionate lovers, which is likely to ruffle feathers in India, the newspaper said.

Starring Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett as Edwina, the movie tells the story of Lord and Lady Mountbatten’s return to India in 1947 for the handover and is based on the book ‘Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire’ by Alex von Tunzelmann.

The movie, which reportedly also stars British actor Hugh Grant and depict the last days of Empire in India as Lord Mountbatten hands over power during the summer of 1947 to Nehru, is slated to go on floors early next year. It is slated to release in 2011.

Out in select theaters 12/25/06. One Woman’s Mistake is Another’s Opportunity. www.foxsearchlight.com Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett

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Today sees the beginning of a new recurring segment on Cinepub, Last Year In Film. The concept is fairly simple, watching and reviewing all the Oscar and Razzie nominated films of 2008. And I do mean all of them. It’s going to be a massive undertaking and I hope that I can manage to pull it off before the end of the year. With that in mind let’s begin with the backwards-aging, Gumpesque saga known as The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Benjamin Button tells the strange tell of the titular character who is born with what appear to be the signs of old age. His father, horrified by the baby’s appearance and the fact that it caused him to lose his wife during childbirth, abandons the baby on the steps of a New Orleans old folks home.

It soon becomes clear that Benjamin isn’t just one of those children with that extreme aging illness. Rather it seems as though he is actually aging backwards. Throughout his backwards life he has encounters with many interesting character’s and experiences the odd important historical event. He also experiences loss from a slightly different perspective and seems to gain a unique outlook on death, told as he was how he would die when he was a very young child.

The first thing you notice about this film is just how much it’s like Forrest Gump because that’s pretty much what it is but instead of being a little slow, the protagonist ages backwards. The similarities are striking. There’s a love interest who’s a free spirit who just wants to enjoy youth and not be tied down by their stodgier male counterpart until the good times have to come to an end (In Jenny’s case a son and terminal illness, in Daisy’s a severe leg breakage that ends her dancing career.), There’s the kindly mother figure who will try and do anything for their son and there’s the gruff alcoholic who he goes to war with whilst also being a boat captain and who seems to truly treasure his friendship. Fuck, there’s even a scene where Benjamin declares how he managed to get paid doing something he’d gladly do for free.

Despite all that, however, I really, really enjoyed this film and I think most of it is down to Brad Pitt and the character of Benjamin himself. In Forrest Gump, the character seems to stay exactly the same, almost oblivious to the changing world around him. Benjamin, on the other hand, seems to change quite a bit over the course of the film and, probably due to his odd condition, seems to adapt better to the changing world around him than anyone else. As Benjamin gets younger, he retains the knowledge that he has accumulated over the years and so, when he finally ends up looking like he’s in his twenties, there’s a wisdom in him that his appearance belies. Just like Benjamin himself says when he replies to Daisy’s comment about how young he is: “Only on the outside,”

There is, however, one major problem with this film that I cannot let go of. If you knew a dude who aged backwards is that the kind of thing you’d keep to yourself until you were on your deathbed? Hell no! You’d tell everyone you goddamn knew or at least I would. It’s like surviving the Titanic and never telling anyone about it until some treasure hunters decided to look for some precious stone that nobody knew you owned. Seriously.

Anyway, the special effects are great, the story’s pretty good if somewhat recycled and the acting is pretty much awesome all round and you’ve always gotta love a film that lets you hear the Louisiana accent for prolonged periods of time. I had a little trouble following it at first, unaccustomed as my ears are to it and the fact that my laptop speakers are shit, over the course of the film I got to grips with it. So there you have it. I’m sure some people will find the film a bit slow, maybe even tedious but it kept me pretty much hooked all the way through and the ending where Benjamin is finally going through childhood is truly, truly bittersweet. I’ll give it four pints out of five.

Laterz.

A man, both simple and simplistic, moves through time and the world, touching those he comes in contact with without seeming to be touched by them.  He meets a girl in his youth, loses her to a world he is not a part of, but eventually wins her when she tires of that world, only to lose her again but he is left with a greater legacy.  How I loved…Forrest Gump?  Yes, but also The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.  From a script written by the same scribe as Gump, Eric Roth, Oscar-winning Benjamin Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and directed by someone I greatly admire whose work I don’t always like, David Fincher.  Seven may be my favorite crime thriller and I think that although flawed, The Game is a minor masterpiece.  Even Panic Room and his ‘kitchen sink’ movie (as in he throws in everything but), Fight Club, though inferior still are a joy to watch, if only once.  Always overly ambitious but still a fabulous visual storyteller, Fincher tries to fashion his greatest masterpiece, an epic about a man with a strange malady, he is born old and grows younger through time.  Benjamin is abandoned at birth but found and raised by a loving black woman (Taraji Henson) who works at then appears to run an ‘old folks home’, where he seems to fit in just fine, thank you very much.  He becomes a seaman and sees the world, experiencing history as it unfolds, always naive regardless of the breadth of his experience, once again mirroring that lovable simpleton, Gump.  The woman he pines for is Daisy, luminously played by Cate Blanchett.  In fact, every supporting role is so well written and played that it only serves to point out the hollowness of Pitt’s character.  Although he is in virtually every scene of the movie, there is no real arc to his character, no change at all really, as if he is just too flummoxed by the bizarreness of his life that he simply cannot grow as a person.  At least Forrest Gump grew, albeit in small ways, from his experiences.  By the time the movie finishes its almost two and a half hour run, you don’t really know anymore about what makes Button tick then you did at the beginning.  But surrounded by such rich set pieces as Button’s romancing a diplomat’s wife in a Russia that is imploding or a terrifically thrilling stint fighting on the seas during World War II, it is easy to forget and almost forgive this minor quibble.  So, by all means, see it for the superb supporting characterizations and often startling visuals but don’t expect a lot from Benjamin Button himself, especially for him to start yelling, ” Jenny!”.  After all, her name in this movie is Daisy.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | David Fincher, 2008

Which filmmaker do you believe best represents modern American cinema? Which filmography would you choose, if you could, to represent such a great country and its ever-increasing array of films? It’s a question that I’m sure many have thought about but, of course, there is no concrete answer. There is however a general consensus as to the recognised greats of American cinema and with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the reclusive writer/director David Fincher cements his place among this select few, turning away from the thriller genre to present us with something entirely different. Many people question the standard of new movies considering the status of older films, but tend to forget that thanks to an ever-advancing level of technology filmmakers today are really pushing the boundaries of their medium. Benjamin Button is the perfect example of this, but is much, much more than just visual wizardry. The tale itself is based upon the premise for a short story written by famed American author F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1921 about a man who ages backwards. The film sees Fincher rekindle his relationship with Brad Pitt, an actor with whom he has worked on several occasions before. Pitt, playing the titlular character, also links up with Cate Blanchett, opposite whom he acted in Babel and Darren Aronofsky’s short-lived first draft of The Fountain. These professional relationships no doubt help solidify the foundation of trust that is crucial to any project of this size.

For Fincher this may indeed be an important step towards embracing the spectacle of conventional cinema, for Benjamin Button seems more at home in the theater than any of his previous efforts. The narrative itself is decidedly unconventional however, which may be part of the reason – along with the aforementioned technological implications – that this project has been on so many desks down the years but has taken until now to finally see the light of day. Our protagonist Benjamin is abandoned as a baby on the stoop of an old persons’ home, and as celebrations for the end of the first World War rage around him is taken in by a kindly black carer named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who raises him as her own. Benjamin instantly takes himself to be one of these aging, addled individuals but learns soon enough that life has a different course mapped out for him. Although he sees the world through different eyes to those around him, Benjamin remains distinctly ordinary and down-to-earth throughout the entire film. This in itself is one of the many beautiful touches to be found in Benjamin Button, for the sheer modesty of Benjamin’s personality quite wonderfully complements the rich and rather special nature of his life story – a story that is put to the screen with the utmost attention paid to its pacing.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is true cinema. It is the perfect example of how to take a daunting premise and knead it into something that eclipses even the ambitious nature of the premise itself. It is complete, not only in its cyclical narrative but also in accomplishing what it sets out to do. Namely that of exploring the mystery of life and of death in a way that few films have ever done. Never before have I come across a motion picture that despite ending on the saddest note is such a celebration of life. Through Fincher’s masterful direction and Eric Roth’s outstanding adapted screenplay we are taught that life in all its glory is not about minutes, but about moments. Benjamin Button touches on the idea that youth is wasted on the young, and that the ultimate regret of the aged is in their discovering that life must be lived to its fullest. Once Benjamin has traversed the afflictions of old age he has already come to realise this fact, and in turn we realise that the world is too small and life is too short for a person of his ambition. Another jewel in the film’s already heavy crown is the haunting composition of Alexandre Desplat who outdoes himself here. A majestic score to match a mastery of filmmaking from David Fincher. Grandiose, resounding and ultimately timeless, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one for the ages.

Our Rating:

Questa volta ho toccato il cielo con un dito e credo che ci resterò appiccicato!!!!!!!!!

Ho passato il provino e a giugno parto a Sydney per preparare lo spettacolo con la Sydney Theatre Company:

“Pound Elephant Scientists Cross Elvis” per la regia di Cate Blanchett!

From Official Movie Website

It is a very bizarre film that talks about a man named Benjamin Button who was born an old baby & stricken with many illnesses. The doctor was not positive that he will live, but he did & continued to grow younger & healthier.

Eventually, as he ages backwards, he becomes so young back to being a baby again, this time normal looking but internally so old.

I wonder what it would be like to live like that? To live life backwards – an old child who is not capable of walking & running & doing all sorts of normal childhood stuff; to slowly getting younger & more energetic, experiencing life only when you are in your mid life. Later growing older yet being in a child’s body but then forgetting what you have gone through, who you have met, what you have seen & experienced.

It is a little slow, to be honest. There were many moments where I almost drifted off & fell asleep but the plot still manages to keep me awake.

There are no visually appealing effects & no overly dramatic plots that promises to squeeze tears from your tear ducts. In fact, the movie is a little too quiet.

But I still liked it & the soundtrack is just beautiful.

Later.