iPhone Siri ad and the decline of an artist

[MacGuffin]

[theyarelegion]

Fuck you, Martin! You are breaking my heart. Please stop being a huckster and get back to making personal and honest and lower budgeted movies again... but we all know that's not going to happen. There will be no more risks of any real capacity, no forthright struggle to get anything worth making made (Silence, his 17th century Jesuits in Japan movie, has been in a constant state of pre-production on IMDb for years now with each new project coming in going to the front of the line). He's a careerist now. He wants and gets go projects with big talent attached but he's evolving into a company man, a studio director for hire, because of it. Maybe he's , looking back at a masterful career that validates him as one of the best, and cashing in... In other news: he's shooting his next film, The Wolf of Wall Street, on digital and abandoning film for good. He calls it embracing, I call it a career move. Why rock the boat now, in lieu of a paycheck? Why resist, at 69, after decades of using film and fighting tooth and nail to get his singular vision across? Now, as evident in that god awful iPhone ad, he's as much a personality as a filmmaker. He's helping to preserve and restore films for the good of motion picture history but picking up a shovel to help fill a part of celluloid's filling grave.

Here he is in action again, this time hocking a Canon EOS while gushing about the rich blacks it produces (along with other nauseating sound bites):

What the fuck happened to you, man? Your ass used to be BEAUTIFUL!!!

[Reel]

Fuck you, Martin! You are breaking my heart. Please stop being a huckster and get back to making personal and honest and lower budgeted movies again...

at least he was referencing one

[theyarelegion]

It's pure caricature, which makes it that much worse somehow. From "You should see what a .44 Magnum's gonna do to a woman's pussy" to talking to a phone. It's a long way down... (or up, depending on the person)

[©brad]

He's been directing and starring in commercials for a while now, I don't get how this one iPhone ad is the tipping point of him selling out. This argument (which is bullshit) could and has been made a while ago.

At his age and with his filmography he doesn't really owe us anything.

[theyarelegion]

At his age and with his filmography he doesn't really owe us anything.

I know he doesn't. I just wish he wasn't abandoning film for digital, talking to a phone in a commercial, remaking Boiler Room and doing a Sinatra biopic possibly featuring DiCaprio with blue contact lenses.

Why is the argument bullshit? I don't like him in the commercials but I'll look the other way if he directs them. I like directors to stay behind the camera where they belong. The iPhone ad is 'the tipping point of him selling out' because: a) it's a dreadful commercial and I hate the idea of people talking to their phones, and; b) it will be seen by many more eyes than anything he's previously lent his face to. I'm surprised they didn't cut a check for Bobby to be driving the taxi... and besides, no one wants to see their heroes very pointedly selling out.

........and you were right, there are plenty more to my horror:

rinse your commercial viewing palate with this:

I came across this tidbit featuring Scorsese answering Sofia Coppola's question of: Who's your favourite Beastie Boy?

[Reel]

that Wild Rabbit shit was fucking pathetic

[Alexandro]

The iPhone add is terrible, no question about that.

But Scorsese playing himself in movies and adds is an old story by now, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Scorsese's time as an indie filmmaker struggling to get projects done has long been over, I would say even as back a Cape Fear. If I remember correctly, during the mid 80's he was actually asking for financial help from his dad. This is after directing Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. I bet when he sized the chance to become a studio director he just took it and has never let it go.
He likes the big budgets, he has said countless times that he dreams of being a studio director for hire like some heroes of his, and perhaps he is getting it done.

Despite my reservations with some of his recent films, I would never call stuff like Shutter Island and Hugo paycheck jobs that required no passion from the man. If he were to make another "gritty" film like Taxi Driver, that would be for me a true hack move.

I don't see any heroism in filmmakers "fighting" for film versus digital. The ones who can shoot on film do that because they can afford it. When the money is needed and you have to go digital, you do that too. It's just a format, a tool. It's like dismissing films because they're not widescreen, or in black & white, or in 3d. Sorry but it's not that important.

[Pubrick]

theyarelegion has a point here though..

remaking Boiler Room and doing a Sinatra biopic possibly featuring DiCaprio with blue contact lenses.

He doesn't have to necessarily make "gritty" movies again, I don't think that's the right term for what's missing. In terms of production value, even as his films became slicker in the 90s with cape fear and casino, he at least was making interesting choices.. even masterpieces. But every film since gangs of new york has been missing something. With the exception of a few glimpses of humanity in the aviator, he doesn't seem concerned with the same themes that drove everything from Mean Streets to Bringing Out the Dead.

Maybe he's in a happier place and it is impossible to channel the anger of his early work, or the epic wisdom of his 90s films. Maybe now he just wants to entertain.

The trade off for his disciples is that following his films has become a chore, they used to be an inspiration.

[©brad]

There are biological realities that are easy to forget when we get pissed at our favorite filmmakers as they age. Dude is 69. There was a ferocity and anger that drove a lot of the themes of those early movies he might not possess anymore. Alexandro makes a good point too. Maybe he likes playing with bigger toys now. Maybe his priorities are shifted and he finally wants to amass some wealth for his family, I don't know. I won't pretend there hasn't been something missing from his films of the last decade, but even on his worst day there's always something interesting in them.

Tarantino said filmmakers always get worse as they age, not better, which is why he was in a rush to get his best shit out then retire (I doubt he'll ever do that but we'll see). Who knows what PTA will be doing at 70. It's totally fair to criticize Scorsese's choices and his affair with DiCaprio that I too wish had ended a couple movies ago, but to call him a sell-out and a fucking hack at 70 seems harsh and misguided.

[Reel]

IMO, anyone who makes commercials is a major fucking sell-out









jk, cbrad

[Alexandro]

I consider hunger to be the main motivational resource of filmmakers, which is why most guys make their best work while they're still young. Scorsese vomited his soul for a long time and now he's clearly making films from a more calculated point of view. I also think his experience with Harvey Weinstein and Gangs of New York was devastating for him. Anyone who has read some stories about that know that Scorsese is kind of a nightmare; volatile, violent, smashing stuff, screaming. And he and Weinstein just battled the hell of each other and the result is a film that I seriously doubt looks and feels like he wanted it. So after that there is a kind of cynicism in the way he approaches the projects. I'm speculating here of course, but I have the feeling that The Aviator is so energetic in part because Weinstein was a producer and Scorsese banned him from the set; and in some diabolical way he was enjoying this.

But about filmmakers in general, only a few of the masters keep the same level of awesomeness through the end. A rare exception is Buñuel, who had an amazing run with his last films; which I think has to do with him being in exile again having a social situation that feed him creatively (Franco in Spain); Kubrick, Bergman and Altman (in his own weird way) also come to mind.

[InTylerWeTrust]

SO WHAT? The old guy just wants to make some money making some half-assed commercials... I don't see anything wrong with that. Scorsese has been Mainstream for a looong time now so is not a big deal. Now if it was someone like PTA or MALICK doing commercials that's a different story.


That iPhone 4 commercial did make me cringe when I saw it on tv though... It made me think of this:

[theyarelegion]

I don't see any heroism in filmmakers "fighting" for film versus digital. The ones who can shoot on film do that because they can afford it. When the money is needed and you have to go digital, you do that too. It's just a format, a tool. It's like dismissing films because they're not widescreen, or in black & white, or in 3d. Sorry but it's not that important.

It's nothing like dismissing a film because of widescreen, or whatever... it's a matter of film, celluloid, 35mm, 24fps, versus the incomparable... digital, video, a bad photocopy. Sorry but it is that important to a lot of people.

The trade off for his disciples is that following his films has become a chore, they used to be an inspiration.

Exactly.

There are biological realities that are easy to forget when we get pissed at our favorite filmmakers as they age. Dude is 69

Michael Haneke is 70 years old and his last film was The White Ribbon. His next movie just won The Palme d'Or.

[Pubrick]

Yeah I don't think the age argument holds up at all. Most master directors get better with age. In many cases they become even more daring. In fact this is one of the reasons it is clear that Tarantino is not one at all.

But then again most master directors don't get the chance to sell out. I'm not blaming Marty for his choices, they were smart financial decisions, it's just a sad simple observation that his current output is no longer essential.

It's an interesting coincidence that he and deniro both started declining around the same time. At least Marty is trying to go out in style.