Documentaries like this remind me why I love cinema. If you can get a free trial on Apple TV just to give this series a watch, it’s definitely worth the effort.
There are key ingredients to making a documentary work. Any documentary on any subject, for that matter, especially subjects you don’t care about. I’ve got minimal interest in basketball, for example. That didn’t change the fact that The Last Dance was a really effective documentary series. And talking of other subjects I either don’t particularly care about or don’t care about at all, you’ve got Amy (Amy Winehouse), Senna (F1) and Maradona (football), all of this were made by Asif Kapour, who’s basically my go-to guy for the making-subjects-I’m not-interested-in-super-interesting kind of schtick. Yeah. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
What Mr Scorsese and Kapour’s documentaries have in common are genius slices of found footage that really enliven the narrative. Stories of Scorsese’s early life, a load of which I didn’t know about, were made yet more intriguing by the countless number of photographs that helped set the scene alongside key talking heads like Scorsese’s parents, particularly his mother, who appeared in a lot of the director’s early films. And this isn’t a light-hearted, neat little overview of Scorsese’s life, either. The episodes get into the wats and all struggles that Scorsese went through with substance abuse and his need for absolute control in the film proceedings. It’s particularly awesome to see how his mind works in terms of the meticulous storyboarding he does months before the film has even been produced. He has every image and moment down to the dot, and it’s just super cool to get into the mind of a supremely creative – and perhaps necessarily destructive – creative talent. You’ve gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette. ╮( ˘ ､ ˘ )╭
But it’s also really cool from a film nerd’s perspective when you’ve got comparison shots from Scorsese flicks with voices talking over and analysing them. It reminded me of a great YouTube channel called Every Frame A Painting, which goes into deep analysis about the ways in which films are composed. If you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out. I’ve seen a load of Scorsese’s films, but it’s so awesome (I keep using that word, but, y’know, it is) to understand the context behind them and how Scorcese’s personal background with gansters and religion played such a huge role in his work. ₍₍⚞(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⚟⁾⁾
Personal highlight, though? There’s this fantastic anecdote where Scorsese and Robert de Niro are late for the Taxi Driver premier at Cannes, and there’s seemingly nobody around to support with publicity. So Jodie Foster just rocks up to the interviewers and starts talking to them about the film in fluent French. I already knew Foster was a boss before watching this, but this genius image of the actress working the room just confirms it. Bravo. Anyway, if you’re a film buff who knows their stuff, this is some genuine cinematic genius right here with some absolutely cracking footage. Pure cinema, you might say. ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-