Perhaps DC Universe films aren’t cinema, either?
In a new interview with The New York Times, Martin Scorsese confirmed what you probably could have guessed: he hasn’t seen Todd Phillips’ The Joker.
“I saw clips of it,” he said of the Joaquin Phoenix film. “I know it. So it’s like, why do I need to? I get it. It’s fine.”
In fact, Scorsese was asked to be a part of the film, but revealed that he turned it down for “personal reasons”.
Elaborating, he explained that he wasn’t keen on making “the next step into this character developing into a comic book character”.
“He develops into an abstraction,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s bad art, it’s just not for me… The superhero films, as I’ve said, are another art form. They are not easy to make. There’s a lot of very talented people doing good work and a lot of young people really, really enjoy them.”
The Oscar-winning director made global headlines last year when he said in an October interview with The Guardian that Marvel films are “not cinema”.
Doubling down, he went on to write an op-ed for The New York Times clarifying his thoughts, in which he wrote:
“Many of the elements that define cinema as I know it are there in Marvel pictures. What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk. The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes.”