Monday, April 18, 2011

2007 - THE KEY TO RESERVA, 2010 - A LETTER TO ELIA, two short films about filmmakers from Martin Scorsese.


A couple of short films from Martin Scorsese about filmmakers and filmmaking.  These two minor films say a lot about his attitudes towards a couple of major filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan.


The Key to Reserva is an extended sparkling wine commercial about Scorsese discovering some lost script pages from an unfilmed Hitchcock script.  Scorsese's really the whole show at his motormouth best.  He blathers on at 100 miles an hour talking about preserving a film that was never made in the first place and carries on about recreating the lost scenes to Greed.  His short film The Key to Reserva does a pretty good job of mimicking Hitchock's style and contains enough in jokes to amuse just about any film nut. 

10 minutes.


A Letter to Elia is something very different from The Key to Reserva.  Scorsese is again the star in this film. This time he's much more serious as he discusses the career of director Elia Kazan a filmmaker he clearly feels a lot of kinship for.  Scorsese does a brief overview of Kazan's life and career focusing on some of the highs and lows of his personal life.  Towards the end of the film Scorsese speaks movingly about his friendship with Kazan, his appearance at the Academy Awards to give Kazan his honorary Oscar and in particular, Kazan's late 50's and early 60's films which had a personal resonance for him.

60 minutes.


Scorsese clearly enjoys Hitchcock's films but seems to have a more emotional connection to individuals like Kazan or Cassevetes.


These films are an interesting insight into what makes Scorsese tick film wise.  The Key to Reserva is floating around the Internet, but don't bother with You tube which for some reason has suppressed the audio track on this film.

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