SCORSESE CRITICISES MARVEL, AGAIN
Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese has been under fire for comparing Marvel movies to “theme parks”, previously saying that they don’t capture the true essence of cinema.
Doubling down on his recent comments that Marvel films are “not cinema,” the filmmaker again slammed the superhero films and called on theatres to show more of “narrative films”, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday alongside Robert De
Niro and Al Pacino ahead of The Irishman’s closingnight screening at the BFI London Film Festival, the director said, “it’s not cinema, it’s something else.”
“We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films,” he said. On Saturday, during Bafta’s annual David Lean lecture, the filmmaker made similar comments, claiming that movie theatres are “all being taken over” by “theme park” films.
“Theatres have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense,” he said, adding, “That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that”.
Scorsese, who struggled to find funding for the upcoming film The Irishman before signing a deal for the same, first spoke out against the superhero films earlier this month in an interview.
“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” he told the outlet.
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being,” he added.
The filmmaker’s comments didn’t go unnoticed by the Marvel filmmakers. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) director James Gunn tweeted that it was hypocritical of Scorsese to judge a movie without watching it in the first place.
“Martin Scorsese is one of my five favorite living filmmakers. I was outraged when people picketed The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) without having seen the film. I’m saddened that he’s now judging my films in the same way,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is set to release soon before its debut on a streaming platform.