Scorsese on Scorsese

Weaned on both the Hollywood classics and the films of the European New Waves, Martin Scorsese burst upon the scene with Mean Streets (1973), a semi-autobiographical chronicle of life in New York's Italian-American community. Three years later, he was awarded the Palme d'Or in Cannes for Taxi Driver, the picture that first brought him together with screenwriter Paul Schrader and sealed his collaboration with Robert De Niro.

He has since matured into one of the undisputed masters of world cinema, constantly expanding his palette, from Raging Bull (1980) to Goodfellas (1990), from The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) to Kundun (1997), from The Age of Innocence (1993) to Gangs of New York (2002), from Casino (1993) to Shutter Island (2010), not to mention the television series Boardwalk Empire (2010) and the outstanding documentaries he devoted to his family (Italianamerican, 1974), rock music (The Last Waltz, 1978), or cinema itself (A Personal Journey Through American Movies, 1995).

For almost forty years, from Paris in 1974 to New York in 2011, Michael Henry Wilson has passionately tracked and documented every step in Scorsese's career. Their encounters, which over the course of time have become a ritual, illuminate the creative processes of a filmmaker who lives primarily for and through the cinema.

Scorsese on Scorsese encompasses the director's entire oeuvre, from his short films of the early 1960s to his present-day projects. The iconography includes a wealth of documents, many of them from Scorsese's private archives : notes, drawings, manuscripts, storyboards, family photographs, and production stills. A comprehensive filmography completes what is both a reference work and a labor of love.

Born and educated in Paris, Michael Henry Wilson is a Franco-American living in California. A filmmaker, film historian, and longtime contributor to the French monthly review Positif. Wilson has published several books, notably A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1997), Raoul Walsh or the Saga of the Lost Continent (2001). Jacques Tourneur or the Magic of Suggestion (2003), and Eastwood on Eastwood (2010).

His two passions, film and history, are also evident in his screenplays (Alan Rudolph's Investigating Sex. 2002) and his documentaries (In Search of Kundun, 1998). He recently completed Reconciliation : Mandela's Miracle (2010) a documentary feature about Nelson Mandela and the transformation of South Africa. This follows Clint Eastwood : A Life in Film (2007), an intimate portrait focused on Eastwood's approach to filmmaking.

Wilson also co-wrote and co-directed with Martin Scorsese the threepart series A Personal Journey Through American Movies (1993). His collaboration with Scorsese continues ; next up is a documentary on British cinema.