Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall irrupted into a flurry of cheers this afternoon as filmmaker Martin Scorsese strolled on stage to take part in a career Q&A at the London Film Festival.
The keynote session, hosted by Baby Driver filmmaker Edgar Wright, was the hottest ticket here this week in London. With a completely sold-out crowd of devoted film fans and UK-based filmmakers like Dexter Fletcher and Asif Kapadia, the session unraveled almost like a university lecture, with Scorsese speaking for lengthy periods about his films, career, and the effect both have had on his life. “I’ve always considered myself a teacher more than a filmmaker,” Scorsese began when quizzed on his voracious appetite for world cinema and why he likes to remain in dialogue with other people about the films he loves. “I’ve felt a sense of pride that I’ve influenced a couple of people not necessarily with my work but by recommending films,” Scorsese said. “ And then from their films, I get inspired.
It opens up a whole new world.” Working his way through Scorsese’s filmography — mostly chronologically — Wright reminded the filmmaker that his breakthrough hit, Mean Streets, turns 50 this year.
Digging into the film’s creation, Scorsese said he simply wanted to “make a film about my life and friends in the Lower East Side.” “It was a delicate issue because it wasn’t a place where you could bring cameras.
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