It’s no secret that director Martin Scorsese is fascinated by religion. Almost all of his movies include some Biblical allusion, theological meditation, or, in the case of “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Silence,” center-stage depictions of the church and its sacred texts. Despite the filmmaker’s interest with the subject, though, it may come as a surprise that he actually studied to become a priest, but reveals in a new documentary that he was kicked out of his Catholic seminary for bad behavior.
“Mr. Scorsese,” a new docuseries from Rebecca Miller chronicling the life of the legendary director, premiered at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 4. In the first episode, which explores the director’s early life, Scorsese reflects on the impact that religion had on him as a child and young adult.
At age seven, Scorsese attended his first Catholic mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which inspired him to pursue a religious education for many years afterwards. “There was a preparatory seminary, and that was on 85th Street somewhere. I did okay for the first few months, but something happened,” Scorsese reflects in the series.
What seemed to happen was that Scorsese became fascinated with a world beyond the church. “I began to realize the world is changing,” he says, “It was early rock and roll and the old world was dying out. I became aware of life around me. Falling in love or being attracted to girls, not that you’re acting out on it, but there were these feelings, and I suddenly realized it’s much more complicated than this. You can’t shut yourself off.”
The director recollects that he eventually realized that the priesthood was not for him. “The idea of priesthood, to devote yourself to others, really, that’s what it’s about. I realized I don’t belong there,” he remembers, “And I tried to stay, but they got my father in there, and they told him, ‘Get him out of here.’ Because I behaved badly.”
The documentary doesn’t explain what specific bad behavior the young Scorsese partook in, but considering the amount of sex, drugs and violence embedded in his filmography, it seems evident that his curiosities were manifold.
Scorsese instead ended up earning a B.A. in English from New York University’s Washington Square College and later an M.A. from the University’s School of Education. He made his directorial debut in 1967 with “Who’s That Knocking at My Door,” which began a nearly six-decade career making influential and iconic films such as “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Irishman” and many more. He has been nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards ten times, winning in 2006 for “The Departed.”
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“Mr. Scorsese” will release on Apple TV+ on Oct. 17. The full series is five episodes and includes interviews with Scorsese along with his family members, contemporaries and creative collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, Thelma Schoonmaker, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster, Paul Schrader, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, Jay Cocks, Rodrigo Prieto and more.
From Variety US