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Martin Scorsese: ‘To understand love is a wonderful thing’. B y T h e I n t e r v i e w P e o p l e G rowing up on the streets of NewYork’s Little Italy in the 1940s and 1950s as the son of second-generation Sicilian immigrants, Martin Scorsese learned that “to create something artistically, you have to be very tough. You have to negotiate, learn when to push and when not to push.” Scorsese’s sanctuary was just a short walk from the family home – St Patrick’s Old Cathedral. He was an altar boy, and studied in a seminary, with the intention of becoming a priest, but instead went on to become, in time, perhaps America’s most celebrated filmmaker. But if Scorsese left the church, it can be said the church never left him. As a new book of conversations between Scorsese and a 59-year-old Jesuit priest Antonio Spadaro, Scorsese on Filmmaking and Faith, makes clear, Scorsese’s entire body of work can be seen as a lifelong attempt to address the questions of faith and conscience, good and evil, sin and redemption that exercised him as a child. ‘‘It wasn’t the first time I met an artist interested in the sacred,” Spadaro says. “But with Martin there was something different; his vision was not abstract, theoretical. I would say visceral, deeply rooted in his own life experience. “Over time, that meeting gave life to the conversation on faith, so this book gathers years of intense and passionate conversations”. Scorsese’s childhood in the turbulent ferment of Little Italy came to be, as he puts it, “the formation of my life” – and his films. In the new book he talks of how he “poured everything I felt and experienced, all of my questioning, my search for Jesus, my love for the church and my family, the people around me, all of it went into the creation of Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Casino.” “All these stories,” he goes on, “had to do with the themes and faith that I was exploring over the years – embracing the faith and the innocence of childhood, reacting against that, but finding myself still constantly obsessed with it. This was something I thought about every minute of the day. And that means looking at us closely, the good and the bad. “I wasn’t trying to make sermons. I was trying to present these stories, conflicts, these parts of who we are as human beings, to present this in entertainment form, because I like to do that. I don’t necessarily want to make a film that’s only shown to 20 people. I also enjoy entertaining people”. One question he sought answers to in the church was, “What is this thing called redemption? Can you redeem yourself? That’s what drives my creative impulse”. Spadaro adds, “The priest’s task is to make the presence of grace visible in the chaos of life, and Martin does precisely that through his art. He speaks to the human soul in the universal language of cinema. In Mr Scorsese, the recent AppleTV documentary, Scorsese talks of watching old Hollywood love stories and their impact. “To really understand [love] is a wonderful thing. And maybe that comes through devotion to another person, or people, an extended family. Jesus said, ‘Love God and love your neighbour as yourself’.” With his wife Helen, he says, “being older parents made us aware of love in another way”. Helen has been living with Parkinson’s disease for years. Scorsese features in the 2021 Netflix documentary Stories of a Generation with Pope Francis, where he is seen, touchingly, with Helen – solicitous, concerned, loving. The pontiff said: “[Scorsese] was the big star, yet he said, ‘[Helen] is what matters to me. She’s more important than all my successes, all my films, than all the things I’ve done.’ He showed his love. That deserves more awards than his films, which are excellent”. “After Pope Francis met Martin and Helen”, Spadaro says, “he told me, ‘When I see them together, I understand what love is.’That was unforgettable”. Scorsese on Filmmaking and Faith: AConversation Between Martin Scorsese and Antonio Spadaro (Sceptre) is out now in hardback, e-book and audio Simply Abu Dhabi | 195