Scorsese and DiCaprio Unite for Restrospective

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese will join forces for an American Cinematheque retrospective.

They will show Gangs of New York first, then The Aviator, The Departed and finally, this year’s Shutter Island.

DiCaprio is now right up there with Robert DeNiro as far as loyal collaborations go. Both actors seem to inspire Scorsese in ways other actors don’t. And working with Scorsese, DiCaprio has consistently done his best work. Shutter Island could be considered a sleeper hit – a film that has grown in esteem as the year has plodded along. I don’t think it just this website that reserves appreciation for it. I hope not.

Every collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese has resulted in a Best Picture nomination. Shutter Island was released early this year, having skipped last year’s race. Much of the heat was taken off it and many have decided to count it out completely. But one has to wonder if there might not be a place for it after all.

The schedule after the cut.

SCORSESE AND DICAPRIO
November 13 – 14 at the Egyptian Theatre.
After productive ongoing relationships with Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, Academy Award¬Æ winning director Martin Scorsese found a new muse in the 2000s in the form of TITANIC star Leonardo DiCaprio who had already earned his first Oscar¬Æ nomination at the age of twenty for his breakout role in WHAT‚ÄôS EATING GILBERT GRAPE. Starting with GANGS OF NEW YORK in 2002 and continuing through three more films (including THE DEPARTED, THE AVIATOR and this year’s hit SHUTTER ISLAND), DiCaprio and Scorsese have found a common language and created a body of work that stands alongside the best actor-director partnerships. The Cinematheque is proud to present a complete series of their collaborations.

Saturday, November 13 – 5:00 PM SCORSESE & DICAPRIO Double Feature: THE DEPARTED, 2006, Warner Bros., 151 min. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Scorsese returns to crime and the streets, though this time the mean streets are in Boston, not New York. Leonardo DiCaprio is an undercover cop pretending to be a crook and Matt Damon is a gangster (a protege of crime lord Jack Nicholson) passing himself off as a cop; as both men get deeper and deeper into their false identities, the danger to their bodies and souls increases exponentially. Scorsese finally got his Oscar for this riveting thriller that also stars Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin.

GANGS OF NEW YORK, 2001, Miramax Films, 167 min. Martin Scorsese’s most ambitious epic uses the visual language of the American Western to tell a very urban story: the history of New York’s development in the wake of the Civil War. Leonardo DiCaprio is a young man bent on vengeance whose nemesis, the evil but seductive Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis), leads his city’s anti-immigrant “nativist” movement.

Sunday, November 14 – 1:00 PM SCORSESE & DICAPRIO Double Feature: SHUTTER ISLAND, 2010, Paramount Pictures, 138 min. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, an investigator who enters a mental institution to solve a crime and is quickly immersed in a tale of haunting mystery and psychological suspense that unfolds entirely on a fortress-like island housing a hospital for the criminally insane. Leonardo DiCaprio heads up an all-star cast (Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson) in this chilling compendium of mid-20th century horrors.

THE AVIATOR, 2004, Miramax Films, 170 min. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes in this biopic that earned him an Academy Award¬Æ nomination for Best Actor. The gripping drama focuses largely on Hughes’ adventures in Hollywood – a time frame that allows Martin Scorsese to construct a grand old-fashioned entertainment in the tradition of the classic studio system. Recreations of the Cocoanut Grove and other Hollywood landmarks, along with expert turns by Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, make this a feast for movie fans.

Discussion at 1pm with actor Leonardo DiCaprio in person and director Martin Scorsese via satellite from London.
About American Cinematheque

Established in 1981, the American Cinematheque is a 501 C 3 non-profit viewer-supported film exhibition and cultural organization dedicated to the celebration of the Moving Picture in all of its forms. At the Egyptian Theatre, the Cinematheque presents daily film and video programming which ranges from the classics of American and international cinema to new independent films and digital work. Exhibition of rare works, special and rare prints, etc., combined with fascinating post-screening discussions with the filmmakers who created the work, are a Cinematheque tradition that keep audiences coming back for once-in-a-lifetime cinema experiences. The American Cinematheque renovated and reopened (on Dec. 4, 1998) the historic 1922 Hollywood Egyptian Theatre. This includes a state-of-the-art 616-seat theatre housed within Sid Grauman’s first grand movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard. The exotic courtyard is fully restored to its 1922 grandeur. The Egyptian was the home of the very first Hollywood movie premiere in 1922. In January 2005 the American Cinematheque expanded its programming to the 1940 Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica.