Photo: Everett Collection/REX USA.
Have your tissues handy, people. You're guaranteed to shed a tear or two over Martin Scorsese's heartfelt open letter to his 14-year-old daughter Francesca. The Goodfellas director revealed his paternal side and shared some serious nuggets of wisdom with the teen.
The letter was published in full on Italian news site, L’espresso, and opens with quite the statement: “I’m writing this letter to you about the future. I’m looking at it through the lens of my world. Through the lens of cinema, which has been at the center of that world.” A bit different than usual father-daughter missives, right?
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Scorsese continues to talk about the changing face of cinema, and how he faced an uphill struggle starting out. He also thanks directors such as Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers for “managing to get pictures made.” But, it gets really interesting when he comments on how the movie business has impacted what he calls real cinema. “In the future, you’ll probably see less and less of what we recognize as cinema on multiplex screens and more and more of it in smaller theaters, online, and, I suppose, in spaces and circumstances that I can’t predict,” he writes. Is this a thinly veiled complaint, or words of warning to young talent from the king of movie making?
Although he imparts top-notch career advice for his daughter (does she have a future in the family business?), there are a few life lessons to be learned from Scorsese’s letter. He promises the “future is bright,” but also reminds her that “the tools don’t make the movie, you make the movie.” And, he finishes with these profound words: “There are no shortcuts.”
Listen to your father, Fran, he knows a thing or two. (The Independent)