This evening Martin Scorsese’s Netflix gangster movie ‘The Irishman’, which stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, closed out the BFI London Film Festival with its International premiere. Speaking at the film’s press conference earlier on in the day the filmmaker opened up on the subject of streaming and clarified his previous comment’s he made regarding Marvel films.
Scorsese had a lot to say on the future of cinema and the importance of streaming and the freedom Netflix gave him on the movie.
“I think we are redefining now in such a way, not just an evolving of cinema but it’s a revolution. It’s an even bigger revolution than sound brought to cinema, it’s the evolution of cinema itself” Scorsese stated, “The original conception of what a film is and where it can be seen has changed so radically that we may have to say there’s a certain kind of film that’s made here, there might be a virtual reality film, there’s holograms, there’s all sorts of things that are becoming thatwee don’t really know”
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Scorsese was still quick to mention that the whole cinema experience should be something to be protected, but for ‘The Irishman’ to be made they needed more room than the cinematic experience could provide.
“Something that should always be protected as much as possible and I think will always be there is a communal experience and I think that’s best in a theatre. Now, homes are becoming theatres too, but it’s a major change and I think one has to keep an open mind. There is no doubt seeing a film with an audience is really really important. There is a problem though that you have to make the film. We had run out of room in a sense, there was no room to make this picture, for many different reasons I guess. Ultimately, there was a financial too in terms of the CGI we did and the reasons why the CGI was complicated”.
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The iconic filmmaker, in recent weeks, made his feelings clear on what he thinks about the influx of Marvel movies and has compared them to “Theme Park” movies, he took the opportunity to open up on the subject once again, this time with a little more clarity.
“It’s not cinema, it’s something else. We shouldn’t be invaded by it. We need cinemas to step up and show films that are narrative films. Theatres have become amusement parks. That is all fine and good but don’t invade everything else in that sense. That is fine and good for those who enjoy that type of film and, by the way, knowing what goes into them now, I admire what they do. It’s not my kind of thing, it simply is not. It’s creating another kind of audience that thinks cinema is that.”
You can watch the full press conference for The Irishman here
The film premieres on Netflix November 27th with a limited cinema release from the 1st of November.
