If you find Hollywood movies too commercial, what about the great New York directors? They each have their own style, but they have three things in common: their movies are deeper and more serious than typical Hollywood productions, they often feature New York City, and none of the four is “white Anglo.” American!
Martin Scorsese was born into a family of Sicilian immigrants, in an area of New York dominated by the mafia. As a child he witnessed many crimes and brutalities, which he later portrayed in his films. They are usually set in New York and the characters are, as one reviewer once wrote, “the kind of people you wouldn’t want to meet.” He often casts Italian-American actors Robert De Niro (Taxi driver, Good boys) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator, The dead people). Scorsese’s films were sometimes criticized for the violence they contain. The director himself says: “Okay, but that’s the reality I see.” In 2007 he finally won an Oscar for The dead people.
Francis Ford Cappola also comes from an Italian-American background. The photo that made him famous was The Godfather (1972), the story of a mafia family; it also made Al Pacino a star. Two years later, with The Godfather II Coppola he became one of only five directors to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for the same film. His most ambitious film is apocalypse nowa Vietnam War epic inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel heart of darkness.
Comedy director and actor Woody Allen, whose real name is Allen Stewart Konigsberg, comes from a Jewish family in New York. A typical Allen comedy is set and filmed in New York, contains lots of funny dialogue, and features a typical hero, played by the director himself: the intellectual “urban neurotic.” The black and white shots of New York in Manhattan They have become part of film history.