At the 78th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards, I had the opportunity to speak with director Rebecca Miller about her ambitious documentary project, Mr. Scorsese.
What began as a feature-length documentary quickly evolved into something much larger — a five-part series. And according to Miller, it simply had to.
“It was the breadth and the depth of his work,” she explained. “And realizing how interesting his early life was — you didn’t want a fifteen-minute version of that. You wanted an hour.”
To truly understand Martin Scorsese’s work, Miller says you must understand the roots: the neighborhood, the church, his parents, and the childhood friendships that shaped him. Those “nerve endings,” as she described them, run through every frame of his films.
With a career that spans decades and a filmography she describes as nearly “Shakespearean” in output, condensing Scorsese’s life into a single film simply wasn’t enough.
One of the most fascinating insights she shared was about Scorsese’s authorship.
While he doesn’t always write his own screenplays, Miller noted that he consistently transforms collaborative scripts into unmistakably personal works.
“As a writer-director, I think that’s really interesting,” she said. “How do you make something someone else wrote into an auteur film?”
That question sits at the heart of Mr. Scorsese — and at the heart of great directing itself.
In documenting one of cinema’s most iconic filmmakers, Rebecca Miller ensured that his voice — and its origins — were fully explored.
Watch the full interview with Rebecca Miller above.
