The room is choked with aspiring directors, febrile fans brandishing camera-phones and eager young actors who have turned out to hear the maestro of cinematic machismo divulge his secrets. At this week's Marrakesh Film Festival, no event has been as keenly anticipated as the masterclass with Martin Scorsese.
Unlike these fresh faces, I've already had my first insights into the man responsible for moulding a new genre of American Italian cinema, so I'm one lesson ahead. I was invited to a dinner in New York a few weeks ago, at which Scorsese, among others, was to be enlisted as mentor to a protégé. I was at a table with the actor Aidan Quinn and a Swiss banker who loudly wondered who Quinn was. Another guest greeted Quinn as "Anthony" before confidently stating: "I'm very familiar with your work."
In some desperation, Quinn began recounting his best Scorsese stories, no doubt to salvage injured pride. "Marty and I go back some way... I was originally cast as Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ... What people don't realise is how funny Scorsese is, he's funnier than Woody Allen." As absurd as that sounded, his last sentence stuck. When Scorsese was announced, he stood up to take his bow as the room roared its ovation for this man, who suddenly appeared, if not exactly like Allen, then not unlike his hyperactive half-brother. He wore a dinner suit and bowed like an emperor penguin, shrugging his shoulders as the applause roared on. Even from my distance, I could see Scorsese's funny side.
-- From How to make the perfect movie: A masterclass with Martin Scorsese, by Arifa Akbar
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