Q&A with Martin Scorsese, 'Mean Streets'

Legendary director Martin Scorsese introduced and answered questions at a screening of his breakout film "Mean Streets" (NYFF '73), starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, as part of our series "50 Years of the New York Film Festival!" Moderated by Film Society of Lincoln Center's Associate Program Director Scott Foundas.

[lovenlightman]

Mean Streets- One of the best movies ever. Martin just showed the life of his frends in Little Italy. Such a strong and funny movie in my opinion.

[stacyblue]

Mean Streets. We did not grow up in New York but we KNEW people like that. We had friends who fit these characters. And we miss them. "We" being me and my sis and my little group of friends who are god knows where. That is the magic of true film making. We can relate in our own ways. Beautiful film. One of my absolute favorites. It is in my heart. Excuse me if i am being overly sentimental. It rocks.

[tonym]

the mailbox scene is one of my all time favorites, which I saw right before this .the soundtrack was a little ahead of it's time.CREAM at the ending is electrifying.

[RagingBull]

No one will ever knock Marty off the throne. NO

[QuasiTraction]

Mean Streets is #2 of my top 5 of films Scorsese directed. I particularly liked the bar sene where Harvey Keitel is drunk and how the camera follows his swaying and body movements. Spike Lee borrowed a bit from that in at least two of his films. but even Paul Thomas Anderson, and Oliver Stone (who was a student of his at NYU) borrows a bit from how Scorsese, Particularly in group or "meeting the croud" shots. I also see commonalities with both those directors (Anderson and Stone) in jump cuts to where one character makes a gesture or a name is mentioned and the next few frames are the object or the person's reaction or what they are doing and how it follows the dialogue of the character speaking.

[tonym]

CREAM on the soundtrack at the end, is electrifying! and it's a live recording .

[Stephen-lttp]

I hate it when people think Goodfellas is better than mean streets, I used to have friends as teenagers that just couldn’t understand mean streets, maybe when they get older they will. There’s so much inside jokes, New York and Italian slang and humour that would just fly over most people‘s heads. “Hey Charlie I drew a picture of you”, “what am I crazy I can’t be seen with a melijian in the village.” But when I saw it as a teenager I fell in love immediately. That’s his best film in my opinion. Cuts right to the heart, who’s that knocking at my door, raging Bull, and taxi driver come close. But mean streets is the soul

[Hi-szbr]

I really like to listen to these you Tube talks, these Scorsese’s information are the the greatest

[dt]

Alfred Hitchcock mainly made 'thrillers '. Godard mainly made 'romantic movies with a political back drop' .Spielberg mainly makes 'thrill ride' films . Coppola mainly made epics or 'experimental cinema '. All the names or phrases used here are that of film genres . Wonder what Scorsese makes?? Well it has got a unique genre of Scorsese is -'SCORSESE' . And that's why, I think him to be one of the FINEST.

[myboylollipop]

Without the Ronettes "Be My Baby" there would have been NO Mean Streets period!

[AlexAHeisok]

Did anyone else pause this at 06.35 - watch mean streets and then play the rest of the video?

[Tom]

I love Be My Baby just as much as the next guy but there was also over an hour and a half of great acting and the work of a young film master.

[UnusualTastes]

16:19 That guy is all like- "I'm pouring water for Martin Scorsese!"

[colinpoitras]

The greatest film maker of his generation. Maybe the greatest of all time. He changed everything. How many slo-mo shots of guys walking have u seen.? He invented so many things that have become common in everybodys films. Yet he had to go to Netflix to finance The Irishman because no studio would. Yet these studios have all kinds of money to finance comic book/CGI movies. It's sad. The era of great directors telling great stories is over. He would never get Taxi Driver or Raging Bull made today.

[vinceniederman]

I Have Mean Streets on DVD and The First Time I Watched It The Film Was So Good For a Crime Drama Movie!

[tarnopol]

It's such a fantastic film. Looking forward to The Irishman. Marty is basically the country's film professor. We should all listen more (no, not just about Marvel): so much to learn. He's the best we've had since Kubrick died, in my view.

[santioned_sneh]

4:53 he had this thought for Taxi Driver and for Ragging Bull too.

[ynslife]

"Enter the Void is quite something!"

[olggg]

Love to hear Scorsese talking about Wajda 🇵🇱

[yohei]

"Who's That Knocking at My Door?" is underrated. It's no "Mean Streets, " but it's very clearly a dry run for a lot of aspects of the later film, and it's got one of the Scorsese's most sophisticated portrayals of relationships between men and women, and of toxic male sexuality.