Legendary director Martin Scorsese discusses 'The Age of Innocence'
Scorsese's adaptation of Edith Wharton's classic novel was inspired by other period films that had an emphasis on narrative power.
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Woven through all of these films like a thread during the 20 years he watched them, was filmmaker Max Ophüls. Letter From An Unknown Woman, a very melancholy, sweet film, was on television all the time until he was about 12 years old. Then later on, Le Plaisir and La Ronde. And in 1968, the restoration of Lola Montès, for which he said the late and great cineaste writer Andrew Sarris called it “the greatest film ever made.”
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Scorsese said the style in all of these films is enveloped in narration. Narration is very important to him. The British film,. The satire of the British film, Kind Hearts and Coronets, with its sharpness, really led to Goodfellas.
In the early 1980s, screenwriter Jay Cocks, his old friend, gave him the book of The Age of Innocence, and by the time he read it, it was in England in 1985. He told Cocks when they started writing the script together that it’s a love story primarily. What’s important is the feeling and to nail the emotion right, not necessarily the setting. The challenge is to make a picture that stands on its own, but it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t have references to the past art form.
Scorsese told the audience that if you’re young and you find this of any interest, you may seek out some of the films he was talking about and learn other filmmakers’ ways of thinking of other cultures and to see the universal connection of our shared humanity.
The Age of Innocence was a special film for Scorsese, one that he said he was very passionate about making, and was very special for a personal reason. It certainly changed his life in ways he didn’t expect. He loved Edith Wharton’s writing. It’s reflected in the use of narration, but he doesn’t think he can talk about Edith Wharton’s work without any real insight, except when he read it, it affected him deeply, and so he had to make the picture. It wasn’t easy to make. It was on and off for many years until finally Columbia Pictures put some money together and got a lot of incredible people to work on this film. Scorsese ended his introduction by thanking them all. Michael Balhaus, cinematographer, Dante Ferretti, production design, Gabrielle Pescucci, costumes, for which she won an Academy Award, Thelma Schoonmaker, editor, Elmer Bernstein, music, Saul and Elaine Bass, opening credits. Jay Cocks co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. They both show up as photographers in the film. And all of the actors. Joanne Woodward did the narration. Michael Gough and Alexis Smith, who played the van der Luydens, Robert Sean Leonard, Jonathan Pryce, Siân Phillips, Richard E. Grant, Geraldine Chaplin, Mary Beth Hurt, Miriam Margolyes, Alec McCowen, and the remarkable Norman Lloyd whose work goes back to Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. At 97 years old now, he’s a nonagenarian tennis champion. And leads, Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder.
Brian Geldin blogs at The Film Panel Notetaker.
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