Martin Scorsese has directed more than 20 feature films, including some of the most beloved of the last half-century: Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Departed.
But now he says he can no longer go to watch movies in cinema theatres because he becomes too riled by the behaviour of his fellow cinema-goers.
The Guardian newspaper reports that Scorsese professed himself so distracted by all the chat and mobile phone behaviour around him, he could no longer concentrate on the events on the screen.
Scorsese was talking to US film critic Peter Travers who wrote on his blog The Travers Take:
“I asked the maestro why he doesn’t see movies in theatres any more and he went all raging bull about audiences who babble on phones during the movie, leave to order snacks and vats of soda, and keep up a noise level loud enough to drown out the actors.”
Travers wrote that he challenged the veteran director: “‘Come on, Marty,’ I said, ‘we couldn’t keep our mouths shut when we were kids.’”
Travers added: “His [Scorsese’s] eyes darkened. ‘Yeah, maybe,’ he conceded, ‘but when we talked it was always about the movie and the fun we had chewing over the details.’”
The Guardian reports that Scorsese has multiple projects in production, including a Hawaii-set crime drama starring Dwayne Johnson and a documentary about the late Pope Francis, with whom it is believed he had the final interview.
In his long career, he has received 16 Academy Award nominations for his work, including winning the Best Director Oscar for police corruption thriller The Departed (2007).
