Marathon
It’s a Saturday night during the New York Film Festival, and Martin Scorsese is holding court at Lincoln Center, the undisputed king of this temporary film nerd castle.
Actually, “king” doesn’t do Scorsese—arguably the most influential director of our time—justice. He’s probably more like a god. Case in point: he helped resurrect Gone to Earth, the Technicolor film made in 1950 by British filmmaking team Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, perhaps better known as The Archers.
You’ve likely never heard of it. Set in the dramatically pastoral English county of Shropshire, the film’s famously controlling producer, David O. Selznick, significantly re-edited and re-shot the film once he received their cut. Then, he released it under the new title of The Wild Heart, ensuring the intended version of Gone to Earth was, well, gone from Earth.
It was Scorsese who decided it was finally time for Powell and Pressburger’s original cut to see the light of day. His nonprofit, The Film Foundation, saves and restores old films in danger of being lost forever. After tracking down an extremely, extremely rare version of the original Gone to Earth held in the British Film Institute’s archive, the Film Foundation spent a year fixing it up, and along with Rolex, screened it in front of a packed theater at NYFF. (Scorsese is a Rolex Testimonee.) In the world of cinema, that’s some Jesus-raising-Lazarus type stuff.
After the Gone to Earth premiere—the first time Powell and Pressburger’s original version has been shown to such a sizable audience—Scorsese and his longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, sat for a Q&A. It felt like two old friends intimately discussing the film of third, because it was: Powell was a mentor to Scorsese, who later introduced Powell to Schoonmaker—and the British filmmaker and the editor fell in love. They remained married until Powell’s death in 1990.
Martin Scorsese and Daniel Battsek, the President of Film at Lincoln Center.
Sean DiSerio
At one point, Scorsese spoke intensely and specifically about Powell’s use of Technicolor in his films. It was one thing for the landscape to stand out—but did the crowd notice how the process brought out the smaller details? “I think one of my favorite things about the color in this particular film is found in the least expected place, which is the minister’s home,” he said. “That little room, with the ceiling very low, and the teacups and everything, all civilization trying to be civilized in the midst of raw nature.” The crowd mmhmed in appreciation. (Or, in the case of one attendee, gave the TikTok-famous “clock it” hand sign—the utmost sign of respect in Gen Z culture.)
A select few VIPs attended a toast to the film across the street at The NYFF Filmmakers Lounge, presented by Rolex. Scorsese sat down at a table by the back, and a cultured posse soon followed, including memoirist Mary Karr, Olivia Harrison (film producer and widow of Beatle George Harrison), and Margaret Bodde, the executive director of The Film Foundation. Bodde remarked how lucky it was that the negatives for Gone to Earth were in such good condition—and how she worries that the this generation of filmmakers aren’t doing enough to make sure that their films, too, won’t almost disappear after several decades. “Films—as long as they’re in a fairly cool place in a closet—they can survive,” she says. “A digital file on a hard drive? I don’t know if that’ll be there in 40 years. You might not be able to play it.”
Also milling about? The sharply-dressed Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival. There’s a lot of buzzy hot films showing this year, including Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything. Lim says it’s important to show an oldie like Gone to Earth right along with them. “These ones are really important because they’ve been out of circulation. There is at least as much value on showcasing them as a film that was made this year.”
Andre Gregory, the co-writer and star of art house classic My Dinner with Andre, arrived in a pair of New Balances, a paperboy cap, and a pink sweater thrown around his shoulders. The average New Yorker on the street may have not recognized the 91-year-old icon, but this room did, with the crowd parting like the Red Sea as he made his way to Scorsese’s table. (“My knees are about to give way,” he joked as he passed me by.) Scorsese immediately got up from his seat at the head to greet his old friend. A bodyguard stood nearby, towering like a giant next to the 5’4 Scorsese. He scanned the crowd, looking for any cinema superfans that may cross the line. People get weird around Marty.
Cindy Kleine and André Gregory.
Sean DiSerio
Scorsese gave a brief toast as waiters passed around arancini, shrimp, and steak tartare. But by 7:20, he had to be on his way. I asked a guest if he left because he’s busy with post-production for his Gothic psychological horror film What Happens at Night, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. She looked at me like I was an idiot. “He left because he’s Martin Scorsese,” she said. “He has a million things to do.”
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