"Martin Scorsese is one of the few filmmakers working today, who has succeeded in combining a so-called 'authorial position' while also gaining commercial success in this way. In the 1970s, (Scorsese's) really sharp art-house movies costing a few million, gave him a so-called 'street reputation' and he was already able to  get his actors to the Oscars again and again, although he himself initially missed out," said Tristan Priimägi, curator of the Martin Scorsese retrospective.

"At the beginning of this century, however, Scorsese suddenly went to the next level. The cost of his films multiplied, and he started making more expensive films. These are really spectacular movies, often costing around $100 million and, crucially for Hollywood, usually returning several times that amount in profit."

"In doing the Scorsese retrospective, we are trying to follow his good example by not just showing the movies, but also talking about them, making sense of them and putting them in context. It is true that Scorsese's world is mainly the world of the USA, and New York in particular, but through this microcosm it is also possible to talk about all the big themes, culminating with what film is and why we need it," Priimägi added.

The Martin Scorsese retrospective will take place in Tallinn's Sõprus Cinema and Tartu's Elektriteater from October 9 to 30. In Tallinn, each of the movies will be introduced by the retrospective's curator Tristan Priimägi.

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