Series Site
September 5, 2026–June 2027
Martin Scorsese has been making what he calls “pictures” for more than sixty years. A filmmaker long before he first picked up a camera—as an eleven-year-old he created a storyboard for The Eternal City, an imaginary CinemaScope epic about ancient Rome—he has made more than a dozen documentaries and twenty-six fiction features to date. His vast contribution to cinema extends beyond the movies he has directed: he is a producer and advocate for other filmmakers, and through his work with The Film Foundation and World Cinema Project, he is helping to preserve significant films from around the world. His enthusiasm is a generous gift for generations of cinephiles to share and learn from.
This extensive retrospective, running through June 2027, offers the opportunity to experience the depth, breadth, and brilliance of Scorsese’s cinematic vision, and to consider the themes and concerns to which he frequently returns. Depictions of organized crime and the lust for power, money, fame, or notoriety exist alongside films chronicling existential or romantic longing and the search for spiritual redemption. Drawing from numerous influences—including classic Hollywood cinema, Italian neorealism, cinema verité, and the French New Wave—Scorsese has created an exuberant cinematic vocabulary that shifts from naturalism to theatrical artificiality from project to project and sometimes even within a single film. He brings these varied approaches and influences together with precise framing; assured, fluid camera movement; expert editing; and peerless performances.
The eleven films screening this fall—from Mean Streets (1973) to GoodFellas (1990)—launched Scorsese’s career and established him as one of the important cinematic voices of his generation.
—Kate MacKay, Film Curator