• Name: Martin Scorsese
• Full Name: Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese
• Birth Name: Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese
• Nickname: Marty
• Date of Birth: 17 November 1942
• Place of Birth: Queens, New York, USA
• Sign: Scorpio
• Height: 1.63 m
• Hair: Dark Brown
• Eyes: Brown
• Education: NYU's University College of Arts and Science, M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts
• Fan Mail Address:

After serious deliberations about entering the priesthood - he entered a seminary in 1956 - Martin Scorsese opted to channel his passions into film. He graduated from NYU as a film major in 1964. Catching the eye of producer Roger Corman with his 1960s student films (including co-editing Woodstock (1970), Scorsese directed the gritty exploiter Boxcar Bertha (1972). Mean Streets (1973) followed in 1973 and provided the benchmarks for the Scorsese style: New York settings, loners struggling with inner demons, pointed-shoes rock-meets-opera soundtracks and unrelenting cathartic violence. "Mean Streets" also featured Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, two actors who would help shape that style. After Scorsese directed Ellen Burstyn to a Best Actress Oscar in Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore (1974), the trio was reunited for the dark journey of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (1976). The film achieved additional notoriety five years after its release when Bickles (De Niro) concern for a teenaged hooker played by Jodie Foster inspired John Hinckleys assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. After New York, New York (1977) (which one critic described as a wife-abuse musical) and The Last Waltz (1978), Scorsese released Raging Bull (1980) dedicated to his mentor Haig Manoogian. The biography of middleweight fighter Jake LaMotta earned two Oscars (Actor - DeNiro, Editing - Thelma Schoonmaker) and was later selected as the best film of the decade by U.S. critic gods Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Scorsese then explored fans as pariah (The King of Comedy (1982), dark-comic dreams (After Hours (1985), and revisited pool shark Eddie Felson from The Hustler (1961) (The Color of Money (1986) with Paul Newman). Scorsese outraged some religious groups by attempting to portray a human son of God in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) before returning to more familiar territory with the Mafia in Goodfellas (1990). He followed with two films which were remakes, Cape Fear (1991) and The Age of Innocence (1993). Besides directing and co-writing, Scorsese has also acted. Its interesting to note he played the gunman at the finale of Mean Streets (1973) and the cab passenger planning to kill his wife in Taxi Driver (1976). He also had a role in Dreams (1990). 

• Likes to give movie a further sense of realism by casting real-life people into roles (such as Ed McDonald, an actual Witness Protection Program agent who had a cameo in Goodfellas; Ffolliott Le Coque, a retired Las Vegas showgirl who had a cameo in Casin
• Usually cameos in his films, sometimes voice only.
• The lead character in his films often uses a voiceover to gives the audience insight about his way of life (Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002)).
• Frequently casts pop stars in small acting roles: Kris Kristofferson in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Clarence Clemons in New York, New York (1977), Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, and Ellen Foley, The King of Comedy (1982), Iggy Po
• Often clearly depicts and concentrates on diegetic cameras (e.g., Howard Hughes sees himself in the camera lens in The Aviator (2004), flashing bulb in Casino (1995), close up of surveillance camera in The Departed (2006)).
• Unflinchingly graphic and realistic violence
• Dollying forward and zooming-in on a character's face (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990))
• Frequently sets his films in New York City.
• [Cameo] Cameo appearances by himself and family members like his parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese. Catherine played Joe Pesci's mother in Goodfellas (1990).
• Often begins his movies with the childhood of his main characters (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Goodfellas (1990), Kundun (1997), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006)).
• Frequently uses music by The Rolling Stones, especially the song "Gimme Shelter" (Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006)).
• Often uses freeze frames (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), The Departed (2006)).
• Often uses long tracking shots (His most famous tracking shot is from Goodfellas (1990), following Henry Hill and his future wife Karen through the basement of a nightclub and ending up at a newly-prepared table). A notoriously difficult shot to perfect,
• His films frequently have protagonists who have the "Madonna-whore" complex (believing all women should be one or the other) and are disturbed when real-life women don't fit either stereotype. To illustrate this, Scorsese's blonde leading ladies are usual
• Often uses diagetic music (i.e., source of music is visible on-screen).
• Extensive white lighting in scenes of his films.
• His lead characters are often sociopathic and/or want to be accepted in society.
• [slow-motion] Makes use of slow motion techniques (e.g., Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980)).
• Begins his films with segments taken from the middle or end of the story (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995)).
• Frequently collaborates with actors Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Victor Argo, and Joe Pesci, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and editor Thelma Schoonmaker.