Area of investigation: Martin Scorsese
Draft title: Could the working relationship between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio suggest an auteur tendency?
Films
Item1- The Wolf of Wall Street(2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street is about a stockbroker, Jordan, who embraces the stockbroker life and gets involved in drugs, alcohol and prostitution. Jordan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, becomes so obsessed with his new life he gets in to trouble with the FBI, but he manages to narrowly avoid arrest throughout the film. I chose this film as my focus film because it is the latest film that Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese and it is a very good example of a character that Scorsese has created who is consumed by obsession, as he is obsessed over multiple things.
Item2- Shutter Island(2010)
Shutter Island is about a patient named Andrew Laeddis (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is obsessed with this hyper reality world, where he believes his perhaps on the island is as a detective investigating the case of a missing patient from the hospital for the criminally insane. I have chosen this film as one of my focus films because it portrays another of Scorsese's characters that has a real obsession over something, to the point that it causes him to become mentally ill. These are common themes throughout many of his previous film made with Robert Di Niro, such as Taxi Driver.
Item3- The Aviator(2004)
The Aviator, is about a film director who is obsessed with planes, building them and flying them. Howard Hughes(Leonardo DiCaprio) begins to direct a film named "Hells Angles," during the filming Hughes becomes obsessed with getting it perfect. He becomes so obsessed over perfection, his already existent OCD gets predominately worse, to the point he becomes mentally ill and starts to go crazy.
Interviews
Item4- Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese 2014 SBIFF Cinema Vanguard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJJlXWHW9diYg
In this interview featuring Martin Scorsese and Leonard DiCaprio, they talk about the films that they have worked on together and how their collaboration first came about. This interview is useful as it talks about some of the reasons as to why their collaboration came about and explain why they chose each other to work on specific films together. Therefore this interview will enable me to create valid points as to why they chose each other to develop and create the characters in films, this will therefore enable me to work out wether there is a pattern in the motive for the collaboration, thus helping me to determine weather Martin Scorsese is an auteur director.
item5- Leonardo DiCaprio on The Wolf of Wall Street After Oscar Lunch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mlgcXJVNd4
In this interview with Leonard DiCaprio he talks about The Wolf of Wall Street and why he chose Martin Scorsese to direct it. I chose this interview as Leonardo DiCaprio talks about how he approached Martin Scorsese about directing The Wolf of Wall Street, which gives an example of their partnership been driven by DiCaprio, rather than Scorsese, which may prove that their collaboration does not make Scorsese and auteur.
Item6-Leonardo DiCaprio - THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oYiq31FN9U
In this interview, Leonard DiCaprio talks about the type of character Jordan from The Wolf of Wall Street is and how he proceeded to prepare for the role. This is useful because it explains how the character is consumed by greed and becomes obsessed with money, sex and drugs and therefore this will help me create an argument, putting forward the idea that Scorsese is an auteur because he always creates characters who are consumed by some sort of obsession.
Magazines
Item7- http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/martin-scorsese-shutter-island/#_
In this online magazine article, there is a short interview held between Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese, in which Spike Lee asks Scorsese about Shutter Island, which was his latest film at that time. In this article there is also a short intro, which proposes the idea that Martin Scorsese is and auteur director. Therefore, this magazine article is useful because it gives me a talking point when i comes to arguing the idea that Scorsese is an auteur director. Moreover, at the end of the interview, DiCaprio's and Scorsese's collaboration is briefly mentioned, when Lee asks who is staring in his latest film and then goes on to comment on how well their collaboration is going. This will be useful because it suggests that DiCaprio's and Scorsese's collaboration is possibly what makes Scorsese an auteur, thus enabling to argue that their relationship is has auteuristic traits.
Item8- http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/martin-scorsese-reunites-robert-de-niro-leonardo-dicaprio-20150114
In this online "Rollingstone" magazine article it talks about a short film called "The Audition", directed by Martin Scorsese, staring Robert Di Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. The article also contains a clip of the trailer for the hot film, made to promote Asian casinos. This article is useful as it talks about Martin Scorsese's collaborations with method actors, such as Robert Di Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, therefore it enables me to make a point about how Scorsese always creates collaborations with method actors, which is a demonstration of an auteur tendency.
Item9- GQ magazine June 2016
In the June 2016 edition of the British GQ magazine, within the entertainment sections there is a quadruple page spread about Leonardo DiCaprio and his life and career. Within this article he talks about what it takes to be a successful actor and how he submerges himself into his roles.
I will use it to help explain how he is a method actor, which is useful because it is an argument as to why Martin Scorsese may always cast him. It is also useful for quotes that explain about how DiCaprio emerges himself in to a role.
Internet
Item10- http://variety.com/2015/film/news/leonardo-dicaprio-martin-scorsese-reunite-for-devil-in-the-white-city-1201567113/
This online article talks purely about Scorsese's and DiCaprio's most recent collaboration "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and the Madness at the Fair that Changed America." and gives some context about it. This is useful for supporting evidence when making a point about what type of films Scorsese often makes, however other than that it is not as useful as the others.
Item11- http://www.avclub.com/article/martin-scorseses-work-dicaprio-just-vital-his-work-227782
This item is possibly the most useful item as it is an article based on Scorsese's collaborations with method actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Di Niro and essentially analyses the importance of both relationships. It does this by looking at films that they've worked on together. This article is useful as it talks about all of the films that DiCaprio and Scorsese have worked on together, the plot, characters and who took the film to who. The article will help me to answer my question as it backs up the argument that Scorsese creates relationships with very successful method actors in order to successfully portray psychotic, obsessive characters.
Item12- http://www.indiewire.com/2014/02/leonardo-dicaprio-talks-his-work-with-martin-scorsese-says-he-wants-more-movies-like-wolf-of-wall-street-more-89046/
In this online article it begins by talking about The Wolf of Wall Street and how audiences responded to it and it sates that some people loved it because it was very honest in the way it portrayed stockbrokers as greedy, therefore this could be slightly useful when I go on to explain how Scorsese is an auteur because he often creates greedy type characters. Moreover, further on in the article it begins to mention DiCaprio's and Scorsese's collaboration and it stages that it is one of the most famous Hollywood relationships, therefore this is useful because it will help me to explain that their relationship is auteuristic because they are both very well known for it.
Item13- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese_and_Leonardo_DiCaprio
This Wikipedia page has been created specifically for the relationship of Martin Scorsese and contains information about everything that they have worked on together and the collaboration its self and also contains useful links to other online articles. This page is useful because it will provide me with supporting evidence when talking about their collaboration and films, which will thereofr help me to explain that their relationship is auteuristic because of the types of characters that Scorsese asks DiCaprio to play.
Books
Item14- "The Passion of Martin Scorsese" By Annette Wernblad- To Beat the Devil- chapter 8
This book talks about the entire cinematic works of Martin Scorsese including most of the films that he has collaborated on with Leonardo DiCaprio and it explains the characters and plot of every individual film, therefore this will be useful when I come to explain the type of characters that Scorsese creates and how DiCaprio executed them in such a successful way.
Item 15-The Films of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro-Andrew J. Rausch
This book is about Martin Scorsese's and Robert De Niro's impressively long, artistic collaboration, this is useful because it will help explain that the artistic relationships that Scorsese forms are auteuristic because he always choses actors whom he know will be able to successfully portray characters that are often taken over with obsession, therefore this explain why he has used the same two actors on multiple occasions. the obsessive characters that Scorsese creates will be explained throughout the book and it may also contain information as to why he chooses De Niro or how successfully he portrayed these characters. However, although I will be able to apply Scorsese's reasoning for picking De Niro for certain roles, to his relationship with DiCaprio, it may not be as useful as a book about Scorsese and DiCaprio because he doesn't explain about their relationship, only his and De Niro's.
Item16- ’The Pocket Essentials Guide to Film Studies', Andrew Butler
Within this book, the auteur theory has been explained, this will therefore be useful to prove that Martin Scorsese is an auteur director because I will be able to apply the theory to the work he does and explain how he fits the description of an auteur director.
Newspapers
Item17- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3194248/Leonardo-DiCaprio-Martin-Scorsese-reunite-sixth-time-make-film-America-s-serial-killer-H-H-Holmes.html
In this newspaper article it talks about Scorsese's and DiCaprio's latest film together "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and the Madness at the Fair that Changed America." It also talks about the plot of the film and some of the character roles. This is useful as it reveals that the main character is a serial killer, therefore has psychological issues, this will help further support the idea that Scorsese often creates characters with some kind of obsession or psychological issues and picks method actors that he knows will successfully portray the thoughts and feelings of the character.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3194248/Leonardo-DiCaprio-Martin-Scorsese-reunite-sixth-time-make-film-America-s-serial-killer-H-H-Holmes.html#ixzz4S2xmbEYL
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Rejected Items
A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies [1995] [DVD]
This DVD is not useful as it only talks about all of Scorsese's films rather than the specific DiCaprio films and it doesn't really contain much about the obsessive characters within them, or his relationship with DiCaprio.
Scorsese on Scorsese-book
This book is not so useful because its more about the influences and creation of his films, rather than his relationships, however there is a small section on his collaboration with Robert De Niro, but its not enough to explain how his collaboration with DiCaprio is auteuristic because it doesn't specifically talk about DiCaprio.
Scorsese by Roger Ebert
This book is not useful because it was written by the film critic Roger Ebert and the whole book is just about him critiquing Scorsese's work, there is nothing to support that he is an auteur.
