March 11, 2026
SIFF, Festa Italiana, and Greg Olson Productions Present
MARTIN SCORSESE
MAESTRO OF CINEMA
Raging Bull (1980) Martin Scorsese has been medicated for severe bronchial asthma since age three. He couldn’t participate in sports, was told not to laugh too hard. Conserving his breath influences his staccato way of talking. At the high-altitude 1978 Telluride Film Festival he had a cocaine addiction to go along with general exhaustion and his prescription drugs. He collapsed, and in New York was rushed to the hospital bleeding from mouth, nose, and eyes, in imminent danger of a brain hemorrhage. While being treated at the hospital, Robert De Niro came to visit. Martin Scorsese: Bob and I were like brothers. He said, "Do you want to die, is that it? Are you gonna be one of those directors who makes a couple of good movies and then it’s over for them?" Bob had read the Jake LaMotta book and brought the Raging Bull idea to me around the time of Taxi Driver. Ultimately, finally, when I was down and out, I realized, yes, I should do this movie. Going down in flames meant that if it was going to go down, let it go down. If I could say anything, this was the last chance to do it. Raging Bull was kamikaze filmmaking — we threw everything I knew into making it, and I really thought that was the last movie I was going to make. What I discovered — it’s in Raging Bull and the other pictures later on — is that I had to come to terms with something. The fighting with myself. You get to a point where you just get used to yourself: that’s who you are, just get on with it. I was fighting the past, I didn’t trust myself. I’m not talking about art; I’m talking about myself as a person. I’ve surprised myself too many times in the wrong way. It’s how you treat people around you, how you treat yourself. And then you say, If you make a little bit of peace with yourself, you might be better with the people around you, too. Jake was a man who was skilled, he wanted the boxing title, and couldn’t get it because he wouldn’t play ball with the mob, he didn’t want to share his money with them. He’s going to get hit in the ring and those bastards are coming in and taking the money. They do it with everybody, but why should they do it with me? I’m tougher than they are. He doesn’t see the world clearly, his rage extends everywhere, to his brother, the woman he loves. The anger was at the level of my emigrant grandparents. They didn’t know how to take advantage of the American way. There’s a sense of impotence, how you couldn’t change some things in life, and about trust and what happens when there’s a betrayal of that trust. If you’re lucky, there’s some grace. Whether you make that change yourself, or whether you believe in a supreme being, that’s up to you. A lot of it has to do with how you treat yourself. Thanks to The New Yorker poet, film curator, and teacher Tova Gannana for her film essay. Greg Olson Productions is sponsored by Inn at the Market.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese Screenplay by: Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta’s book Cinematography by: Michael Chapman Edited by: Thelma Schoonmaker Music by: Pietro Mascagni THE PLAYERS: Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta Cathy Moriarty as Vickie LaMotta Joe Pesci as Joey Frank Vincent as Salvy Nicholas Colasanto as Tommy Como Theresa Saldana as Lenore Frank Adonis as Patsy Mario Gallo as Mario Frank Topham as Tommy/Handler Lori Anne Flax as Irma Charles Scorsese (MS’s father) as Charlie