title: Masters of Cinema: Martin Scorsese
author:  Thomas Sotinel 
description: Martin Scorsese (USA, b. 1942) is among the most prolific of American directors, having made more than 25 features in a 40-year career that has seen him garner all the highest honours the film world can bestow. Since the success of "Taxi Driver" in 1976, which also marked the start of his long collaboration with Robert De Niro, he has continued to draw endless inspiration from his Italian-American roots in films such as "Goodfellas" (1990) and "Casino" (1995). A cinephile director with a strong spirit of independence, he has managed to combine making blockbusters such as "Aviator" (2004), "The Departed" (2006) and "Shutter Island" (2010) with more personal films on the history of cinema ("A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies", 1995) and music ("Bob Dylan" and "The Rolling Stones"). He is also admired and respected throughout the world for the tireless work of his Film Foundation in preserving America's film heritage.
zlib_text: THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MIKE HAUSMAN.
  
  They are most happy who have no story to tell.
  
  —Anthony Trollope, He Knew He Was Right
  
  I would like to thank my editor, Dawn Seferian,
  
  for her great patience; and Rachel Cline, Scott
  
  Zigler, Catherine Shaddix, and Elaine Goodall for
  
  their help in the construction of this book.
  
  PREFACE
  
  This book is based on a series of lectures I gave at the film school of
  Columbia University in the fall of 1987.
  
  The class was in Film Directing. 1 had just finished directing my second film,
  and like the pilot with two hundred hours of flying time, I was the most
  dangerous thing around. I had unquestionably progressed beyond the neophyte
  stage but was not experienced enough to realize the extent of my ignorance.
  
  1 offer the above in mitigation of a book on film directing written by a
  fellow with scant experience.
  
  In support of the proposition, however, let me suggest this: that the Columbia
  lectures dealt with, and endeavored to ex-
  
  PREFACE
  
  plain, that