Movies aren't just a career for filmmaker Martin Scorsese _ they are an obsession. He and his pal Steven Spielberg are in the forefront of trying to save some of America's early motion pictures that are crumbling before our eyes.
"More than half of the films made before 1950 are gone," he says. "I don't know how we'll catch up. We're trying to have a systematic form."
Part of that form is his work with The Film Foundation (which he founded) and a new agreement with Universal Pictures. They will restore a hand-picked collection of Universal movies, including two versions of Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers," "My Little Chickadee," "Destry Rides Again," and "Winchester '73."
Scorsese says he first became aware that film had been manufactured on an unstable cellulose nitrate base when he attended a 20th Century Fox retrospective at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art. "They were showing all nitrate studio prints and black-and-whites, and they were glorious," he says.
"Then ... I went to see 'Niagara' and 'The Seven-Year Itch,' and the prints were pink. You could hardly see the eyes. You lose all the expression and emotion ... that's when I first realized."
The nitrate base is not only unstable, it's highly flammable. Through his Film Foundation, the 75-year-old producer-director has been leading efforts to convert the fragile resources to a more stable matrix.
Scorsese was born in New York's Little Italy, and he remembers his first movie (and his first cinema crush): "Duel in the Sun," when he was only 4.
For the man who made such classics as "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas" and "Casino," filmmaking has always been about learning something. That's why he champions the works of some of the more obscure filmmakers.
But for him, the three American movies that influenced him the most were "On the Waterfront," "Citizen Kane" and John Cassavetes' "Shadows."
"There are foreign films, too," he adds. "The two that come to mind, for example, are '8 {' and 'The Red Shoes.' ... When I was 5 or 6 years old, I saw neo-realist films. And they also influenced me a great deal."
One of his failings, he says, was avoiding silent movies. "I disregarded completely silent cinema until the late '70s, early '80s and mid-'90s," he says.
Now the silent images of artists like D.W. Griffith, F. W. Murnau and Frank Borzage fill Scorsese with admiration.
He says he's trying to introduce younger filmmakers and cinema fans to the early masters and to some underrated B movies.
The problem is budding movie buffs have little concept of the past, he says. "I talk to some student groups sometimes, I'll mention 'Sweet Smell of Success.' I'll mention Andre De Toth, and I'll mention John Ford's 'Wagon Master,' and suddenly I realize they don't know what I'm talking about.(
"And so I have to say, 'OK, how many here have seen a De Toth film or Jacques Tourneur's "The Cat People"'? And you find that, unfortunately in many cases, film history starts with maybe 'Forrest Gump.' Maybe. But I said that yesterday, and I was told, 'That's too early,"' he smiles.
"I mean, looking at a film like Tay Garnett's 'Her Man' ... is a revelation in terms of the early '30s and the myth of the frozen camera. (Originally) the camera had to stop and be static.
"In many cases, like 'Anna Christie' and certain films like that, that's true because they had the microphone in a certain place and had to speak into the mic. But with Tay Garnett's film, 'Her Man,' and another film called 'Prestige,' the camera moves in a pretty interesting way in a number of shots.
"So I'm always amazed to find what comes out of American cinema. The silent films of Frank Borzage, for example, are a revelation, really, when seen in the right way."
Most people would be surprised to learn that the grand scale Hollywood spectacle is one of Scorsese's favorite genres. "I always admired the big epic films like 'The Ten Commandments,' 'Ben Hur' and, to a certain extent, 'The Robe,"' he says.
"So that was the kind of picture I wanted to make," he says. After more than 40 years Scorsese has delivered such movies as "The Color of Money," "The King of Comedy" and "The Age of Innocence" _ more character studies than sweeping sagas.
"I'm predisposed to these spectacles," he laughs, "and when I started making movies, they're all close-ups."
LIV TYLER JOINS 'HARLOTS'
Liv Tyler will be donning her powdered wig when she joins the cast of Hulu's popular period series "Harlots," returning for its second season Wednesday. Tyler plays a wealthy socialite who aligns herself with the daughter of the 18th century brothel madame (Samantha Morton). Tyler, best known for projects like "The Leftovers," "Armageddon" and "Lord of the Rings," didn't take to acting at first.
"My mother always told me when I was a little girl that I was going to be an actress, my whole life. And I didn't know what she was talking about. I think I thought I'd be a singer because I'd put records on and sing, and my mom was a singer, dad was a singer, my stepdad was a singer. That was sort of my passion, listening to music and singing.
"But my mom saw something in me. I would always get dressed up and act out characters, and I've always been very empathetic and very aware of other people's feelings and able to read people. I'm very sensitive in that way. I think she saw that in me, and she was the one who encouraged me to start acting when I was younger."
MYSTERIES ABOUND ON THE SCIENCE CHANNEL
Creepy things happen all the time, but leave it to the Science Channel to explore their mysteries. "Strange Evidence" returns for its second season this week and ponders such phenomena as a toxic fog that inundates a small town in Illinois, an ephemeral creature that appears briefly in the camera lens of a team of divers in Mexico and an inexplicable fireball that careens off the road from a freeway accident in China. These mysteries can prove far more puzzling than those on "NCIS," "Criminal Minds" or "Private Eyes."
'LAUGH IN' ARRIVES ON DVD TUESDAY
First-time fans will have the chance to devour the full fifth season of George Schlatter's hilarious 1970s TV hit, "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," arriving on DVD Tuesday. The season was significant because it commemorated the show's 100th episode. The variety series, which lasted from 1968 to '72, featured stars like Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin, Ruth Buzzi, Richard Dawson, and Arte Johnson, besides the standup hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.
Schlatter, who served as the comedy's producer, remembers, "It was TV without a net. It was unique then; it is more unique now. Nobody did it before, and nobody's done it since. It was a groundbreaking show ... It was the writing. It was editing. It was the energy. It was the subject matter. But most of all, it was that cast, that wonderful, delightful, crazy cast of characters, and each of them played three or four different characters."
The six-disc DVD, priced at $40, also features visiting guests like Steve Allen, Hugh Hefner, Rita Hayworth, Liza Minnelli and Bob Hope.
