Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Martin Scorsese, Netflix–Academy Peace Broker

A perhaps unlikely olive-branch-wielder has appeared in the midst of the streaming wars: Martin Scorsese,Academy darling and Netflix filmmaker (as of the release of The Irishman, coming to the streaming platform this fall). Though the decorated director is openly dismissive of the idea of calling films “content”—a ubiquitous term with roots in the Internetification of culture—he’s also of the opinion that the famously stodgy Film Academy should give newer movie conveyance methods a chance. Really, Scorsese sees both sides of the issue: “You gotta give them a break, because it’s a new world,” he said of the Academy, speaking to Yohana Desta backstage at Lincoln Center’s splashy Monday night gala. “They may do different things. One can’t ignore the big box-office films, but on the other hand, that’s not The Graduate. It’s not Schindler’s List. It’s not one of my pictures! They’re gonna work it out. I want people to be patient with them, because they need to try different things . . . argue it out, because it makes you think, ‘What is a film? And how should a film be presented, especially in a new world?’ I think the cards are stacked for the big budget, and that’s a problem.”
Elsewhere in HWD, Joanna Robinson chats with Michele Clapton, who designs Game of Thrones’ indelible costumes; Sonia Saraiya peers into the world of HBO’s Gentleman Jack; Pete Buttigieg gives a thoughtful interview about white privilege on The Daily Show; and contributor Benjamin Lindsay reports from the Tribeca Film Festival’s In Living Color reunion, which revealed precisely how the groundbreaking sketch series got away with pushing the envelope on network TV.