Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)

Martin Scorsese: Self

Quotes 

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Psycho"]  At that time, as it is now, we expect certain things. And it took storytelling at that time and said, "No, I'm not going to give you that. I'm going to give you something else. Because you think everything is so cool. You're at the end of the 50s, the 60s are going to look glorious to us." I think it was really important for who we were then. You have Vietnam. You have border revolution. You have everything that happened in the 60s. and the society has never been the same. That picture really touched upon that, I think, "Psycho". Of course, you want everything so neat and wrapped up. Well, life isn't like that.

• Martin Scorsese : At that time, the general consensus and climate was a bullying, as usual, by the establishment - as to what serious cinema is. So, it was really revolutionary. Based on what the Trauffaut/Hitchcock reports, we became radicalized as moviemakers. It was almost as if somebody had taken a weight off our shoulders and said, "Yes. We can embrace this. We can go."

• Martin Scorsese : It was a spell that was cast with those films in the 50s and 60s. And its a special, blessed time for me, because I saw them as they came out.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Vertigo"]  It became a lost film, so to speak. All the filmmakers in the 70s were trying to find copies of it. Some people had 16s. So, it became a picture we were looking for.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Vertigo"]  I can't really say that I believe the plot and I don't take any of it, the story, seriously. I mean as a *realistic* story. So, the plot is just a line that you can hang things on - and the things that he hangs onto it are all aspects of, you know, cinema poetry.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Vertigo"]  That's a film that I can't really tell where things start and end. I don't care. Or, when he's following her in the streets in a car, what is he looking for? What's he looking for?

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Vertigo"]  The city itself is a character - the architecture itself. The mystery of old San Francisco. That painting.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Vertigo"]  This whole business of remaking her, yes, we get it. Everyone is talking about the fetishism of it. Fine. It's good. But, it's this extraordinary sense of loss that he's trying to fill that void. Maybe, maybe he reaches out to everyone? That, because of that. You know, we bring our own sense of melancholy and loss to it.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Psycho"]  The scene with John Gavin and Janet Leigh in the beginning, the element there is the bra. Okay. But, it shocked - very simply, but, ominously.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Psycho"]  The scenes in the office are, kind of, all right, you know - that Texan. For his style, the blandness of the scenes and the blandness of the framing, is just really a kind of a bridge to get you to the next major moment. I think his instinct is right, in telling stories like that. How benign can we make these images? Is that just connect the dots?

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Psycho"]  The best scenes for me are, one's he must have spent time on, the driving shots. You had to spend time on those, particularly the points of view, somehow. And the framing of Janet Leigh in the center of the frame with the top of the steering wheel in the bottom of the frame. Because, you can make a choice. You can go above the steering wheel, you know, or you can go further out. But, then, maybe you won't see her eyes as well. That's like the perfect size. The scene with the policeman, of course, the framing of him staring into the car, yes, we know, with the glasses, he's scary. But, there is something about the restraint of those frames. You see, the more you restrain, the better it is when the explosion happens. And on the way to the explosion there are these meditative states. Driving. And there's a sense of movement ahead, movement ahead.

• Martin Scorsese : [Discussing "Psycho"]  She steals money. Then, she decides to drive away. Then, she becomes guilty about it. Then, she meets this guy in a motel and he's telling her all his problems. You're watching, wanting to know what happens. Is she going to bring that money back? Now, what is Anthony Perkins really going to do? You know, he has his mother there, maybe there's going to be this whole thing going on with his mother and him and her. I mean, you're really, you're taken down a path. But, what's great about it is that - that your expectations are taken and turned upside down.