»martin scorsese«

Wundert mich eigentlich, dass es die Leute nicht von den Sitzen gerissen hat, bei dem was in "Shine A Light" von Martin Scorsese im Zoo-Palast bei der Berlinale auf der Leinwand abgeht. Aber es ist eben dann doch nur eine Leinwand und kein Live-Konzert, und alle bleiben brav sitzen und klatschen verhalten. Martin Scorsese schafft ein wenig Distanz zwischen den Rolling Stones und sich in den ersten Szenen, er will von der Perfektion seiner Abfilmung und Inszenierung ablenken, indem er einen gefakten Streit um Bühne und Setlist darstellt. Das führt dann dahin, dass man umso mehr begeistert ist, wie präzise und scharf in jedem Sinne die Performance der Rolling Stones eingefangen ist. Die HDKameras gehen nicht schonungsvoll mit den verlebten Gesichtern um, man sieht jede Falte, jede Zigarette, jede Flasche Alkohol. Und trotzdem springen alle, vor allem Mick Jagger, auf der Bühne herum, als wäre all die Jahre nichts gewesen. Es folgen aneinandergereihte Hits aus der Vergangenheit und jüngeren Gegenwart, Gastauftritte von Jack White, Christina Aguilera und Buddy Guy. Zum Glück bleibt es dann aber doch nicht ganz bei einem reinen Konzertfilm. Martin Scorsese schneidet geschickt Schnipsel aus alten Interviews in das aktuelle Konzert mit hinein, so dass man den Eindruck eines Rock-Dinosauriers bekommt, der alle Natur- und in diesem Fall Pop und Rockmusikkatastrophen überlebt hat. Die Rolling Stones stehen über allem. Absolut. Unantastbar sind sie, den Schweiß schüttelt Mick Jagger lässig wie kein anderer ab, die Kippe spuckt Keith Richards auf die Bühne, als stände er im ersten Proberaum vor 40 Jahren. Natürlich konnte niemand ahnen, wie lange die Erfolgsgeschichte der Rolling Stones andauern würde; die Aussage des jüngsten Mick Jaggers, es könnte mindestens noch ein Jahr so weitergehen, getroffen vor bestimmt 40 Jahren, wirkt somit wie das stärkste Understatement im Rockbusiness. Vielleicht hätte man sich aber gewünscht, es wäre noch mehr Film und Musik zusammengekommen, es hätte noch eine tiefere Verschmelzung von Konzertfilm und Regiearbeit gegeben. So sitze ich als Anerkenner der Musik, aber eben nicht als Fan nach einer Stunde dann mehr aushaltend als gespannt im Kinosaal und wünsche mir die Hits herbei, die in Form von "Start me up", "Sympathy for the devil" und "Satisfaction" auftauchen, in Form von "Angie", "Honky tonk woman" und "Paint it, black" fehlen. Die Perfektion Martin Scorseses liegt hier dann vielleicht nicht im Bedienen des Erwarteten, sondern im Verwirklichen seiner Vision, der Vision eines Fans.

Scorsese's new movie "The Departed" has left me with some questions. Rhetorical questions of course because in the case of a Martin Scorsese movie you mustn't ask any questions. Scorseses talent "shines [...] on it's highest beams" writes the Rolling Stone, "Thelma Schoonmaker turns editing into an art form", yes, but one might say that there have been art forms that are hardly understandable. And it is hard to keep up with the story with this „art form“ of editing. We will see later what this means. Nevertheless the viewer would love to understand why all these hard cuts are made – the brutality of the gangsters along with the brutality of the cuts? Maybe. Also I would like to know why Pink floyds "Comfortably Numb" is played in a scene where it doesn't belong to.
One may come to the conclusion that Scorsese has decided to lift contemporary gangster movies into new aesthetics. No more custom-made suits, the gangsters – who are all quite old – wear We-All-Are-Going-To-Spend-Our-Retirement-In-Florida-like leisure suits; no more Rota-like dramatics in the score, the above mentioned „Comfortably Numb“; no more handwritten notes, the film is jam-packed with telephoning scenes and so on. The gangsters of today only want the money, the bucks, no more romantics...

First of all you will have to bring a lot of previous gangster-movie knowledge to the movie with you as, for instance, Scorsese doesn't explain why Matt Damon is so loyal to Jack Nicholson; this is simply explained by a scene in the beginning where Nicholson bounteously gives the young Matt Damon a bag of goodies. Later on you won't see any doubt in Matt Damons strands of plots apart from him looking at the golden dome of the State House. DiCaprios intentions to become a cop are simply crushed in a good/bad cop scene which is edited in such a special way – remember? The art form that Schoonmaker mentioned - to make the scene appear longer so you don't notice how unbelievable it is that - what is explained later and during the scene - DiCaprio gives up his career just because his bosses found out that he had some crooks in his family. They certainly wouldn't have let him become a cop in the first place if that had made any difference. At the end of this scene DiCaprio is willing to go back into his shitty life and deal coke with his cousin - a matter of minutes against his year long apprenticeship - while Matt Damon has already been advanced several times and everyone listens to his command.
Scorsese rounds up his row of unbelievable actions of unbelievable characters with Vera Farmiga who gives out prescriptions for the whining DiCaprio and randomly falls in love with anyone who either memorizes pickup lines or insults her in her office. I have hardly seen any scene in movies as made up as the one where she carries the prescription to DiCaprio and he asks her out for a cup of coffee. There is absolutely no hint in real or film life as to why she should do something like that.

Secondly you will have to be very experienced in terms of dealing with violence in movies. At the end of the movie all „rats“ and all the good and the bad guys have been blasted their brains out of their skulls and only one clever Mark Wahlberg goes off into an unknown future.
In the meantime Martin Sheen flies through the screen to end up on the pavement, the cell phone has finally become its place in feature movies as a new medium of gangster actions and all former gangster movies aesthetics have been transferred into more subtle scenarios. If you have seen the movie up to the end you will have heard a grotesque amount of swear words, literally everyone fucks and sucks everyone (and everything) and there is no undisgraced mother or compatriot left. If that doesn't ruin the movie the amount of brain matter and/or blood that flies (mostly from left to right) through the whole movie will do. The effect of all of this violence and splatter is lost after about half an hour because there is no more balance or difference between death and life. Most of the critics might say that there is a higher meaning or reason to this, that this is an especially realistic approach to a contemporary state of crime in cities like Boston and Martin Scorsese shows that by being especially unfashionable concerning the clothes of Nicholson, DiCaprio and the other protagonists, but as I mentioned before, this will be the new aesthetic way of filming gangster movies. Also one would have to get over the swearing as this is also realistic or maybe set to scare the more delicately strung. Well, I can tell you: it scared me away, too.