Martin Scorsese nestles himself comfortably in my top 5 directors of all time, which coming from a guy who changes his minds on these sort of things constantly means a lot! One thing I am sure of is that he’s one half of my greatest Director/Actor tandem in the history of cinema alongside Robert De Niro (Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood and Akira Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune aren’t too far behind). Now after a couple months delay his latest film, Shutter Island is finally being released in the UK March 12th. Personally I loved the film, with someone like Scorsese or anyone in the upper echelons of their respected profession, you know they fully deserve that spot when people continually compare and even review their latest works not on the merits of that particular field as a whole but against their previous work, which pitting up against Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Departed, Goodfellas and Casino is seemingly an impossible task! Shutter Island is in UK cinemas Friday, look out for my Leonardo DiCaprio interview as well.
What was more appealing to you with Shutter Island, the emotional and psychological subject matter or to mix up genres with the gothic mystery, horror aspects…?
Martin Scorsese: I think it’s really both in that order, the first element I connected with was the emotion, I felt very sympathetic for the characters, overwhelmed by the nature of the story, this film is hard to talk about because I don’t want to give anything away. It’s that and the vocabulary of cinemas past and the nature of Gothic literature, that opened the door for me in a way and was really enticing. The best way for me to tell the story was to utilize that vocabulary, the rain, the darkness, the framing all those sorts of things.
With your reputation as one of the greatest living directors how much pressure do you feel having those expectations?
Martin Scorsese: All I can do is the best work that I can. I need to work, I like to work, even though I complain about it, I just need to make the best film I can. I can’t think of award periods, it would be nice that a film is recognised like that but once your in the thick of battle you just try to get through it and make something of it that you can say yes I directed that film years from now and be happy with that film, you just try your best. Sometimes you go in with one thought in mind and one desire, in the case of Aviator it was to make this Hollywood spectacle, but quickly by the second or third week of shooting you just want to survive it (laughs), literally you just want to survive it. I also go through the editing process too, then when the films released we have to talk about it, so it’s all of that.
What other films influenced you with Shutter Island? How much of an influence was Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor on this film?
Martin Scorsese: Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor can only be conjured as a mantra because Sam’s Shock Corridor is a classic work of art. It comes from a unique experience of being Sam Fuller, yes there is this element of Shock Corridor hovering around the picture but never specifically. In fact we didn’t even screen it because it’s in me, it was a way of conjuring it up by saying it as we were going to shoot (laughs). But the first film I showed the actors was Laura by Otto Preminger in the sense of the war torn, war ravaged hero, world weariness so to the speak, the body language of Dana Andrews and the man who falls in love with a ghost. Then I showed Out Of The Past by Jacques Tourneur because of the trap, the puzzle, the mystery, the beauty of the poetry in the film. I also showed Let There Be Light by John Hustun, The Steel Helmet, many others as points of reference, primarily Laura though for the way Dana Andrews moved through the frame, shoulders were down, he never looked anyone in the eye and that wonderful scene when he loosens his tie and makes him self a drink and the door bell rings (laughs)
The film is unsettling right from the start with this menacing tone running through it, obviously the score is key to that, how complete is your vision of the film before you start shooting and how much do you rely upon the impact of others?
Martin Scorsese: The mood and tone of the picture and the atmosphere was in my head and in my blood in a way once I decided I wanted to do the picture, I had to find my way in that mood to choose, select and emphasize certain visual elements and sound. Ultimately that’s when I call in my collaborators, Robert Richardson on camera and Dante Ferretti on production design. Then I show them references, many different films, there might be just one scene I want to discuss with them but at least they can have reference points. It’s a constant process of pulling together the imagery, I was rather shaken by all the green trees, I’m allergic, I used to love seeing westerns and seeing the out doors but because I had asthma I couldn’t go any where, I could just watch it on film, the valleys, forests, I used to think it was fantastic but I couldn’t ever go in there (laughs). But we did it in this film, I was actually rock climbing at 7am which was quite unique but back to my point the colour of the leaves disturbed me so we had to work on that but on the other hand we didn’t want to drench it in a depressing tone. For me the key image is the boat coming through the fog in the beginning, it was something I imagined and liked, it was interesting breaking through the mystery, where is he, who is he, there’s a lot of good questions with that shot. Robert Richardson and Dante were remarkable as was Rob Legato on special visual effects, Robbie Robertson with the film score and Thelma Schoonmaker with editing.
