Pope Francis met this Wednesday in the Vatican Martin Scorsese, according to Holy See spokesmen. The Pontiff received the brilliant director in a study of the Paul VI Hall in front of the general audience, and so it is the second meeting between the two in less than a year.
Last May the Pope and the director of Taxi driver, The infiltrators AND Good guysAmong other films, They had a meeting where the director told him he was working on a film about Jesus.
Also director of classics such as casino OR wild bull, The Pope and Scorsese met for the first time in 2016when the director presented his film SilenceFrom the Jesuits in Japan. Then they met again in 2019.
A relationship with history
Last year Scorsese was on tour after the presentation of his film at the Cannes Film Festival The Flower Moon Assassinsnext to Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Once we stopped in Italy, during the weekend, the director, known for having a very strong religious inclination, had an audience with Francisco.
“I responded to the Pope’s call in the only way I know how: imagine and write the screenplay of a film about JesusScorsese announced this during a conference in the Vatican. “And I’m about to start doing it.”the director added in May, hinting that this could be his next film.
The Pope and the filmmaker, this Wednesday, January 31, in his office in the Vatican. EFEApparently Scorsese has been preparing a film based on the novel for some time. The life of Jesuspublished in 1973 by the Japanese author Shasaku Endowhose work has already been filmed Silence about a group of missionaries who came to Japan to spread Christianity.
The Oscar-winning director has already made a film with Jesus as the exclusive protagonistwhich managed to attract the attention of the church at the time: The last temptation of Christ. The 1988 film It was not released commercially in Argentina, nor in many other countries. Scorsese, however, was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for the film.
In the film, an exceptional Willem Dafoe He puts himself in the thin skin of a worldly Jesus who behaves like any neighbor’s son. Scorsese has always made this clear his was a work of fictionwhen the moment of crucifixion arrived, an alleged angel (Juliet Cato) frees Christ – who argues with God for making him suffer – so that he can lead a normal life with Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey).
The Pope and Martin Scorsese with his wife Helen Morris, at the meeting in May 2023.Scorsese had to explain his particular relationship with Catholicism and declared in an interview almost ten years ago: “I believe in the principles of Catholicism,” although he stressed that his interest does not lie in being “a theorist.” or in discussing ecclesiastical politics.
“I am not a doctor of the Church. I am not a theologian who can discuss the Trinity. I certainly don’t care about the politics of the institution. But the idea of the Resurrection, the idea of the Incarnation, the powerful message of compassion and love… that’s the key,” he explained.
Source: Clarin
