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The following is the official Academy transcript of the press interview of
Academy Award Winner Martin Scorsese
February 25, 2007
Q. There were a lot of people pulling for you when your name was called out and here, there was an eruption of applause. What is your reaction to finally getting it and did you feel like this was your year and also being from Boston, there was a big response in our city. What does that mean to you?
A. I, I mean, it was overwhelming, overwhelming, overwhelming moment for me. I must say I didn't know when people say, it's your year, your year, thank God we have been able to make so many films over the past 36 years without winning awards, but we have been able to get the pictures made. So this comes again -- I'm so glad to have -- this comes as an extraordinary surprise and quite honestly surprised for best picture, too. Bigger surprise. I was very surprised when I won the Directors Guild of America, and you know, I've been used to not winning it. So, just make the movies, guys. That's what it's about. Making the films, right. It's not about winning the stuff. But in the meantime, you win something, that means they appreciate it, and I have to be grateful for it. You know, and I'm really thankful for the people in Boston who really did a great job, that great group, the Dropkick Murphys, who did Shipping Out to Boston, which Robbie Robertson gave me to put in the opening credits of the picture.
Q.I was going to ask you the same question if in the bottom of your heart you thought this was your year, and also, what did it feel like to have your friends --
A.That was on extraordinary moment when the three of them came out and give me a look. Francis Coppola and George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. We go back, Steven and I go back to '68,'69. Francis Coppola, 1970. George, 1970. So we have – I just went up to San Francisco to see Francis and his new film which is quite wonderful at George's new theatre on Thursday. So they have influenced me. Francis has been like a big brother in my life. Spielberg and George Lucas and I have --particularly in that first 10 or 12 years in the '70s, early'80s, worked together, really worked together, and helped each other with each other's films and really -- their main -- it's almost like a private little film school. And to see the three of them walk out and give me a look before they opened the envelope, I was very, I was very surprised. Very surprised.
Q. We all in this room know you are a fantastic director. What most of us may not know is that you are also a great proponent of film preservation and film archiving. I come from a part of world in Asia where there's an emphasis on new technology, on going to digital and moving away from film.
A. Yeah.
Q. Can you say something here tonight before the press of the world?
A. That's a very good pint. I'm going to try to continue with the Film Foundation, of which Steven and George and Francis are members, to continue to try to -- and we do every year --restore older films, classic films, and maybe not-so-classic films but we restore them on celluloid. It's very important. We don't know what new technology is coming down the line. Digital also fades. We have to be very careful. I mean, it gets to a point where there's so much film and you have to make a choice and there's certain points, and you have to make a choice with two or three titles. Already that's a problem because 10 years from now, those titles might not be as important as the other ones, but the other titles that are around or newsreels, if the only thing you can do is transfer them to digital, you may have to do that, you see, just to hold them out for the new technology. But it's so important to try and restore these films on celluloid. For example, the Hollywood Foreign Press has given us money every year for certain films. This year, they gave us money for 'The Red Shoes,' Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger's film, to restore the actual three-strip negative, you know, and that's going to be very important. You have to go back to the original.
Q. How, though, do you justify this? In an economy where I come from, in Asia, where their concentration is on saving money for their film or their budgets are very small and also a rush to the new technology, the digital, which is a lot cheaper to film on than film itself?
A. That's going to be a serious problem. There are so many Asian countries -- I'm beginning to learn now, and many people are, Korea, South Korea, the real, real, film history – and actually, and we hope -- we may announce it in Cannes, but we are hoping to pull together a group that might begin to help films from places like South Korea, Ethiopia, et cetera, to do some archival work whereas they might not be able to get to do it in any other way. But it's important, I mean, at a certain point, even if it has to go digital, it has to be, I'm afraid.
Q. How can we contact you about what you are going to do in Asia?
A. Well, myself, my -- my public relations person. Leslee Dart, right here.
Q. Congratulations again.
A. Thank you.
Q. You are known from having such an encyclopedic knowledge of film history and I know in The Departed, you reference Howard Hawks of all of the shots of the (inaudible)?
A. Yes. That's for fun, though. That's for reference. For those who know, know. That's it.
Q. Was there anyone else or any references you are drawing off of when you want to make this film?
A. I think the overall, the pervading mood of the picture, written in Bill's script, the ending of the picture. Where everyone is shot, I mean, basically, Bill Monahan's script had that in the original, but I'll never forget watching William A. Wellman's Public Enemy with Jimmy Cagney when I was 10 years old in the theatre on a re-release. I mean, the brutal honesty of that film, the street honesty of it always stayed with me. That's a mark I always -- I always aimed towards. And that this film had that kinds of attitude towards it.
Q. The last time we spoke was on the red carpet of The Departed in New York City and you said you were going to be shooting soon in Montreal. Can you tell me more about that?
A. I'm not so sure now. I'm not so sure. We are trying to find away back to get back to Montreal. We shot some of The Aviator there and we would like to get back up there. The shooting facilities are fantastic.
Q. I think that -- I think, what a couple of journalists are trying to get out of you is, when your name was called, was the word "finally" what popped into your mind?
A. It's a good question, finally, it, uhm, I kept saying I told Leslie outside, good thing I didn't get it before. That it's a good thing I waited and good thing, yeah, because maybe it would have changed the kind of movies I made or something. Couldn't trust myself. I don't know if I was strong enough before quite honestly. And I am glad it went this way and when I saw that smile on his face Steven's face, I said something's up, but I'm glad it's taken this long. It's been worth it.
Q. Congratulations to you. The Departed has done very well and there were rumors out there obviously about prequel or sequel being made I was wondering what your involvement would be in there and whether you would be looking forward to one of your sequel.
A. We were talking about it the night the picture opened. So I am interested in the possibility of doing a prequel. Or a sequel. You know. I don't know if I would direct, but depends on how the script turns out.
Q. How about the rumors that Mr. De Niro would be a part of this as well?
A. I don't know about those, but that's not a bad idea.
Q. Marty, I understand that you told the studio when it came time for campaigning, not to bother to do any campaigning?
A. Yeah.
Q. On the films we have.
A. Yeah.
Q. Is that reflective?
A. Not for me, for the film. Not for me.
Q. For you?
A.I was really trying to concentrate on the filmmaking and ultimately, if it wasn't meant in the cards, if this wasn't meant in the cards, and that's life, the incredible thing is I got to make these movies, I really wanted to make. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull through Bob De Niro's pushing and it got made. Last Temptation of Christ and Goodfellas, who can complain. I thought it was Gangs of New York. It was an old, old love of mine. It still is. I had to go out and there also for The Aviator, it was a film I enjoyed. But I said on this one, from now on let's relax, let's make as good film as we can. Really.
Q. So, I guess what I'm saying is in a sense, was that your saying I don't care if I win anymore, I've lost so many times?
A. No. I think it's not a matter of not caring. It's the first time I've been standing here with this. It's good I'm standing here with this. I'm could not complain, the work is what's important. I mean trying to get these films financed and cast, and I mean if I was able to do a film and write it myself, and photograph it myself and act in it myself, that's something else, but I can't.
Q. Would the critical and commercial success of The Departed, is it even sweeter that this Oscar you have in your hands isn't the career achievement Oscar? It feels fully earned to you?
A. It does. I do admire the career achievement. I saw Howard Hawks get a career achievement award and Hitchcock and so many others who were never awarded the award for one particular film so it's a very special award, like Robert Altman, but it is a different feeling having been chosen for the year.
Q. Hi, at the DGA awards, backstage, they were asking you, did you think it was your year yet. Well, do you think it's your year yet? And how much -- this may be tough to delve into, but how much did this create an insecurity factor in your own head, after all these years to have done all these great films and to have not been recognized by your peers, and finally it's not the word finally, it's like so there. Didn't this make you insecure over time?
A. I must say the insecurity is always there. It's not an issue of not winning an award to feel insecure. I mean I always question when I do -- I have very strong collaborators. Michael Balhaus on camera and Joe Reidy on this picture after all and they know me and question everything I do. But there are certain things I feel very strongly about and I know I am not going to win any awards, not going to win the Academy Awards. I am going to keep making pictures. That's the key thing. It didn't really make me lose confidence in the kind of picture I wanted to make. Let me put it that way. I don't know how to make a picture that's fashioned to win me an Academy Award. I don't know how to do it. Is there a formula for that? I don't think there is.
Q. So it was just a mystery to you?
A. Total mystery. The only thing -- certainly you get disappointed but then you get up and go back into the ring. What are you going to do?
Q. You are going to win one?
A. Maybe. The winning for me is making the pictures, getting them released and some people see them and maybe over the years I got to tell you some people see them 10 years later too, which isn't bad.
Q. I would like to ask you your opinion about the provision of the results of Second World War in Estonia I mean the intent of the parliament to pass a bill to remove the monuments to liberate a soldier?
A. Sorry. I don't think I'm qualified to answer that. I wish I was.