Here are fifteen of Martin Scorsese’s all-time favorite movies. The list was published by the British magazine “Sight & Sound”, which has been asking established filmmakers every decade since 1952 for their subjective lists of the best films. As part of the last issue, directors such as Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Barry Jenkins and Ari Aster shared their rankings.
Martin Scorsese’s list includes Andrzej Wajda’s Polish masterpiece
In Scorsese’s list, among the films of such outstanding artists as Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa or Federico Fellini, we can also find the work of the Polish director. It’s about “Ashes and Diamonds” by Andrzej Wajda, which the American director ranked third among his favorite films.
However, the presence of a Polish film in this ranking should not come as a surprise, as Scorsese spoke warmly about Wajda’s productions many years ago, especially Ashes and Diamonds. In the documentary about the Polish master “Wajda i Ty”, the American spoke with great fascination about the Polish director and the trend of the Polish film school.
The film that made the biggest impression on me was Ashes and Diamonds. When I saw it in 1961, when I was studying at Washington Square College (now New York University), I began to believe that at some point I would be able to make films myself – confessed the American director
Scorsese also confessed that he watched “Ashes and Diamonds” many times because he attended every possible screening in the American cinema. The film evoked many difficult emotions in him and he was moved by the performance of the actors, in particular Zbigniew Cybulski:
This movie was a revelation to me. It presented the tragedy of a destroyed country, the destroyed Western civilization, the tragedy of people who survived and had to face the new system, rejecting it, fighting it, but with a sense of defeat
The creator of Taxi Driver also mentioned that he drew a lot of inspiration from Wajda’s other films. He was especially delighted with the way of filming and using light in the films of the Pole. Scorsese also shared an interesting story, according to which he showed Steven Spielberg Wajda’s film “Korczak” when he started working on “Schindler’s List”.
The American artist had the opportunity to meet Wajda several times. The last time he saw him was in 2011, when he visited Warsaw. The Polish director gave him an unusual gift related to “Ashes and Diamonds”. It was the original storyboard from the last scene of the film, in which Maciek Chełmicki dies tragically.
The full list of Martin Scorsese’s Top 15 Movies:
- “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), dir. Stanley Kubrick
- “Eight and a Half” (1963), dir. Federico Fellini
- “Ashes and Diamonds” (1958), dir. Andrzej Wajda
- “Citizen Kane” (1941), dir. Orson Welles
- “Diary of a village pastor” (1951), dir. Robert Bresson
- “The Mark of Death” (1952), dir. Akira Kurosawa
- “The Leopard” (1963), dir. Luchino Visconti
- “The Word” (1955), dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
- “Paisa” (1946), dir. Roberto Rossellini
- “Red Shoes” (1948), dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- The River (1951), dir. jean renoir
- “Salvatore Giuliano” (1962), dir. Francesco Rosi
- “The Searchers” (1956), dir. John Ford
- “Moon Tales” (1953), dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
- Vertigo (1958), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
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Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
