A loving tribute to our greatest living filmmaker

We are fortunate to have Martin Scorsese. Although I am sure that opinions vary and there can be a healthy debate on the subject, in my humble opinion, Scorsese is our best living filmmaker. Hell, I could even want to go further and suggest that he is the greatest filmmaker of everything. His hyperbolic? I really don’t care. An obsessive film has often imitated and never duplicated, Scorsese may not be the most financially successful member of the new Hollywood era who has reshaped American cinema, but the case can be done so that it is the best.

Always became strong at 82 (his latest feature film, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, is a masterpiece in its own right), the life and career of Scorsese obtain Docuseries treatment in the form of “M. Scorsese”, an Apple TV + series led by Rebecca Miller. The results are charming and perceptive, although to be fair, if you are a scrurse nerd like me, there is not much here that you have probably not heard before.

But even if you know the tradition of Marty well, “M. Scorsese” hammers at home that Scorsese is unique, a immensely gifted filmmaker who understands more the films (and their power) than apparently anyone else. Docuseries do not try to diagnose it, and I am not a medical expert, but the not so subtle involvement which appears many times here that Scorsese could be clinically obsessed with the art of making films. The filmmaker is at the front and center of documentation, offering often funny comments on his long career and it’s ups and downs. Many of his closest collaborators are also at hand, notably the editor -in -chief Thelma Schoonmaker and of course his two most frequent men, Robert de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio (the way Miller introduces from Niro in the Doc at the end of episode 1, with a need to roll the Stones, is so delicious that I found myself Giddy). “Mr. Scorsese” may not be the most revealing of documentaries, but it serves as a loving tribute to one of the best of the best.

A small sickly child of Italian immigrants in a version of New York which does not even exist, Scorsese came to the cinema by fate or chance, make your choice. As pointed out “Mr. Scorsese ”, Scorsese has long suffered from asthma (we actually see him get rid of his inhaler at some point during an interview). When he was a child living in a building, summers were particularly brutal for the young marty – the heat made it difficult to breathe it and the house of Scorsese had no air conditioning (most of the houses did not do it at that time).

A place that did Having air conditioning, however, was cinema. So when Summers was rolling up, Scorsese’s father takes him to the cinema to escape heat and help his lungs. An obsession was born, while Scorsese became engaged by the moving image. (During this revelation, Miller cuts an interview with the filmmaker Spike Lee, who summarizes things by proclaiming: “Thank God for asthma!”)

While Scorsese tells his original story, he also gives us a wonderful little detail about his childhood influence on his cinematographic style. Since his asthma made him stuck inside when he was a child, he spent hours looking out the window of his family apartment in the streets below. “This is why I like high angle shots,” says Scorsese, how much Miller intelligently cuts a series of memorable photos at high angle of Scorsese films. It is like a key opening a lock on a door, revealing a whole new world.

“Mr. Scorsese” follows a fairly standard life of life, according to Scorsese’s childhood, his Nyu film school days and his trip to Hollywood. F still, Scorsese does not integrate quite in Los Angeles and of course return to New York. His career would start small with a student film (“Who’s that strikes my door”), a assembly concert (and some would say co-director) on the documentary “Woodstock”, and work with the legendary producer of B-Film Roger Corman (“Boxcar Bertha”). But some essential advice from the independent author John Cassavetes have made Scorsese realize that he should not be just a filmmaker to hire – he should make films that actually meant something for him. And so he made “mean streets”, the film that associated him for the first time with DE NIRO and put it on the way to become one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time.

From there, the speed of “Mr. Scorsese” lasted the filmmaker’s acclaimed career. The films that could be considered as his major works receive the most attention, while others are only briefly discussed (for example, “After Hours”, a film which has received a well -deserved re -evaluation since its opening in the 80s, feels a little bad here). Along the way, there are many wonderful little anecdotes, such as the way cocaine uses the creeping race on the set of the quasi -musical “New York, New York” helped spell the fate of this film. A considerable time is also devoted to religious reactions which arose around “the last temptation of Christ”.

De Niro is characteristic reserved for their collaborations, but the doc really highlights how their relationship was and vital (de Niro brought the “rage bull” Scorsese is highlighted as a kind of rescue, the actor imploring the filmmaker to give the project a shooting while Scorsese has been laid out in the hospital due to the addiction drug). The Doc is also at home the fact that Scorsese teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio essentially revitalized the great career of filmmakers – after a series of box office flops did it on the strings, working with a large star like Dicaprio allowed Scorsese to convey to a passionate New York project.

Again: if you are an obsessive scoese, you probably know that most if not all of that. But these are always fun stories to listen to, and how the documents intercue the images of Scorsese films is only improving the experience. “Mr. Scorsese” is clearly more interested in the director’s work than his personal life, even if that does not mean that he ignores biographical details. The various marriages of Scorsese are discussed, and his three daughters are seated for interviews here (Francesca, the youngest girl in Scorsese, has become a celebrity in its own right in recent years thanks to her funny presence on social networks, but I want to give a sign of Domenica Cameron-Scoese, who appears here as a really sweet and carian person;

In the end, your pleasure as “Mr. Scorsese” will come down to how much you appreciate the work of Mr. Scorsese. I doubt that all here will suddenly convert one of her detractors, although Miller and the people she questions remind us again and again Why Scorsese is a big problem. But if you are a head of Scorsese tinged in wool (like me!), “Mr. Scorsese” is like Catnip. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s even a bit melancholy (how can’t it be? Scorsese is in the 80s, and the day it leaves us marks a tragic loss for cinema). But above all, “Mr. Scorsese” is a celebration of our greatest living filmmaker and a confirmation that we are fortunate to have experienced his art.

/ Film assessment: 7 out of 10

“Mr. Scorsese” is broadcast on Apple TV + from October 17, 2025.