Thursday, February 24, 2005

Marty Scorsese's Top 3 movies on a desert island

I just got back from seeing Martin "Marty" Scorsese speak at my employer's campus. So, while it is
still fresh in my mind I thought I should write some things.

So, his top 3 movies:

1) Vertigo
2) Fellini's 8 1/2
3) Il Gattopardo (The Leopard)
Then he threw in a couple more...
Cassavetes' Shadows being one of them...(which I believe, AMIA SC, MIAS and Melnitz Movies will be screening for
Steve Ricci's restoration course Spring quarter).

Scorsese discussed his influences, his experience with film making and the process of film making. He seems to spend a lot of time locked in a room, listening to music and focusing on whatever script he is working on. However, there was one question that related to what we at AMIA are interested in and that was his interest in film preservation. He discussed the formation of the Film Foundation and his interest in preserving what he described as "world history." He even mentioned Bob Rosen from UCLA as one of the catalysts to pushing himself, Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack and others to create the Film Foundation. His interest in preserving for historical reasons moving images (he did not mainly focus on films) is exactly what we want to do as film archivists.

He discussed the importance of preserving news reels, films, home movies and you could tell he is very passionate about it. Though for me, what we are doing is very important. It was nice to hear someone advocating all the time we are spending in studying and working in the field.