Move over Santa, ’tis the season for Martin Scorsese. The 77-year-old director who gifted audiences with two epic (and wildly different) films this year, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story and The Irishman, is being honored by theaters all over New York City. It’s actually rather fitting that the programmers at Film Forum, Museum of the Moving Image, and Metrograph have elected to give Scorsese the additional big-screen time. His two recent projects were Netflix-funded and thus didn’t receive traditional theatrical releases.

The film series and special screenings celebrating Scorsese are as dissimilar as his 2019 releases. There’s a deep dive into his non-fiction work, a review of his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci over the last four decades, and a revival of a singular classic. For fans of the filmmaker, it’s a joyous time indeed. Read on to find out more.

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Scorsese Non-Fiction

It’s been a regular Scorsese love fest at Film Forum this year. In February, the theater hosted a limited engagement of a new 4K restoration of I Am Cuba, which was co-presented by Scorsese. The Soviet Union-Cuba co-production is one of the filmmakers’ favorite films. In fact, he gushes about it for 20 minutes on the I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition DVD.

A few months later, Scorsese was again part of Film Forum’s conversation. The theater engaged the filmmaker, along with his screenwriting pal Jay Cocks, to guest curate their Fourth Annual Festival of Summer Double Features. Scorsese was weaned on double features and advocates for viewing films in pairs. Thus, this was an ideal series for Scorsese to co-curate. Him and Cocks had a lot of fun with it.

This brings us up to date with Film Forum closing out its 2019 programming with 12 days of Scorsese documentaries. A retrospective that spans forty years, Scorsese Non-Fiction is a window into Scorsese’s influences and passions. In a way, all the films in the series are personal documentaries, some are just more overtly so than others. Films like A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), My Voyage to Italy (1999) and A Letter to Elia (2010) find the filmmaker expounding on his love affair with cinema. With Italianamerican (1974), Scorsese puts his parents in the hot seat, interviewing them about their lives from the comfort of their own home.

Then, there are several documentaries focusing on musical subjects close to Scorsese’s heart, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, blues man Corey Harris, The Band, and George Harrison. Also, screening is his portrait of author Fran Lebowitz, his film about The New York Review of Books and its editor Robert Stivers, and his Statue of Liberty doc, which is co-directed by Kent Jones.

One of the more essential films in the series is American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978). Straddling Scorsese’s documentary and narrative film worlds, American Boy is a profile of Steven Prince, Scorsese’s friend and roommate who also played Easy Andy in Taxi Driver. Shot over the course of an evening in a Los Angeles home, the film features Prince sharing personal tales of drugs and violence. Scorsese characterizes American Boy as a story of survival, which is a primary Scorsese through line. The documentary also points to the filmmaker’s lifestyle at the time of its making.

Film Forum accents the series with special screenings of Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976). Plus, guests will stop by to do intros and post screening Q&As. For more information, visit the Film Forum website.

Dates: December 6-17, 2019
Location: Film Forum, 209 W Houston St, New York, NY 10014
Tickets & Details: Film Forum website

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Martin Scorsese: Four Tales Over Four Decades

Netflix teams up with the Museum of the Moving Image to present Martin Scorsese: Four Tales Over Four Decades. This series features free screenings of movies that paved the way for The Irishman. All the films star Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci and are edited by Scorsese’s longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker.

The series runs for four Mondays in December with each week serving up a different Scorsese feature. Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990) have already screened. Still remaining is Scorsese’s Sin City epic Casino (1995). Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction novel Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, the film is a story of high stakes deception, greed, money, and power. The series closes out with The Irishman. And, once again, these are free screenings with tickets distributed first come first serve.

Dates: December 2-23, 2019
Location: Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106
More details: Museum of the Moving Image website

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New York, New York

Restored musical dramas by big-name directors might be having a moment. Francis Ford Coppola had some success with Cotton Club Encore, a re-edited version of his 1984 box-office flop Cotton Club. The new longer feature screened at the 57th New York Film Festival to rave reviews and enjoyed a theatrical run at the Quad. Scorsese is hoping for a similar outcome with the release of a newly restored 35mm print of his 1977 film New York, New York.

Set in the 1940s, New York, New York is an homage to Hollywood musicals and stars Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli as a couple of jazz performers who fall in and out of love. Scorsese wanted the film to differ from his previous films and was striving for something less realistic and more artificial. Unfortunately, the film bombed at the box office when it was first released in 1977. However, it did earn four Golden Globe nominations. It was re-edited and re-released in 1981.

40 years later, New York, New York is staging a comeback. Will audiences have a newfound appreciation for the film? Metrograph and Scorsese are banking on it. The theater’s exclusive one-week New York revival run launches January 31, 2020.

Dates: January 31-February 6, 2020
Location: Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002
More details: Metrograph website

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The Irishman

You can watch Scorsese’s latest mafia epic on a small screen via a Netflix account or you can venture to a theater and see it how Scorsese wants it to be seen. The choice is yours. If you select the latter option, The Irishman is currently playing at IFC Center and Landmark 57, and will also receive a one-week theatrical run at the Museum of Modern Art starting December 27, 2019. For more information, visit IFC Center’s website, Landmark 57’s website or the Museum of Modern Art’s website.