PROVING INSPIRATION COMES FROM LIFE

The main reason this isn’t a Martin Scorsese fansite is that my undiagnosed ADD would never allow me to focus on any one subject or person so intently. Also, beyond simple fawning about the same things over and over again, and saying, “Oooh, isn’t he great, even if he’s less great now than he once was,” I’m not 100% sure what I’d write.

But Film Forum seems to share my Scorsese enthusiasm not simply due to its recent week-long run of Taxi Driver but also what it’s programmed now. Starting today for one week only, Film Forum will be screening in tandem two early Scorsese documentaries (both are under an hour): Italianamerican and American Boy, and both of these are great examples of how much of Scorsese’s filmmaking comes from real life, his or others.

Italianamerican is a film that, at least for a while and according to Film Forum’s web site, Scorsese called “he best film I ever made; it really freed me in style.” In it, the director, having only made Boxcar Bertha and Mean Streets by this point, interviews his parents, Italian immigrants living in the world he then expands and enlarges in Mean Streets.

I’ve never seen American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, but the film — a combination of interview with and performance by Prince regarding recollections of his life — is supposed to be very good. Again, per the blurb on Film Forum’s site, Prince’s stories show him as some sort of mirror image of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, which alone is a scary thought. Prince appeared in the Scorsese-Paul Schrader as “Andy” the gun/drugs/Cadillac dealer.

The two films are shown together for one admission, but they’re only playing through next Thursday (1/27, with no screenings on Monday 1/24). If you’re in New York, make a plan to get down to Film Forum. If you don’t get down there or you live some place else, you’re probably out of luck unless you’ve managed to find the somewhat shabbily assembled bootleg DVD “Scorsese Assembled” with his early shorts and these docs, like Filmbrain did from Kim’s Video. (I followed his lead but haven’t watched all of it.) As Filmbrain mentioned in a post some time ago reviewing the collection, American Boy is “a real gem. In one scene, Prince tells a story that Tarantino would steal pay homage to in Pulp Fiction.” Sounds like a must-see to me.