Scorsese's Women

Venue: Forum Theatre, Arts West

Presenters: Dr Mark Nicholls

The films of Martin Scorsese are internationally recognised as platforms for male actors such as Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and the pantheon of underworld misanthropes they create. In this lecture, Mark Nicholls considers the creative work of women in Scorsese’s films and the fundamental contribution of women to Scorsese’s popular and artistic reputation. He reads the performances of both the small band of Scorsese ‘repeaters’, such as Jodie Foster and Barbara Hershey, as well as the vast array of ‘special guests’, like Ellyn Burstyn, Liza Minnelli, Michelle Pfeiffer and Cate Blanchett. He also analyses Scorsese’s extended collaborations with women behind the camera, such as producer Barbara De Fina and costume designer Sandy Powell, paying special attention to the work of editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who has been at the foundation of Scorsese’s success for nearly fifty years.

Assessing the work of these women on films such as Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993) and The Aviator (2004), Dr Mark Nicholls aims to refresh our perspective on Scorsese and to demonstrate that the Scorsese mob is far less male dominated than we may think. This new perspective expands our view of Martin Scorsese’s filmmaking practice and, more broadly, challenges our idea of what lies behind and beyond the seemingly unassailable international film cult of the male auteur.

Dr Mark Nicholls is Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies at the University of Melbourne where he has taught film since 1993. He is the author of Lost Objects of Desire: The Performances of Jeremy Irons, Berghahn Books (2012) and Scorsese’s Men: Melancholia and the Mob, Pluto and Indiana University Press (2004).

In association with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, this free public lecture is presented by the Faculty of Arts in celebration of ACMI's SCORSESE exhibition.

Those interested in this program may also wish to attend the Faculty of Arts' Melbourne Masterclass: Martin Scorsese.

IMAGE: The Age of Innocence (1993)

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7155-scorsese-s-women