His movies feel alive, inviting - even when his characters are mobsters or monsters. And although he remains one of the most movie-obsessed of all directors, his films rarely feel like the work of a man cut off from the world - quite to the contrary, they’re fully engaged with their specific milieus, whether Tibet or Little Italy. In the best sense, Scorsese’s movies have always been about him - passionately, deeply personal works that catalogue his hang-ups and obsessions, riffing on religion, spiritual torment, guilt, and the difficult road to transcendence, often through gangster pictures and crime dramas. “t was going to be about cutting myself off from the world,” he said of becoming a man of the cloth, “not being a participant in it.” “I began to think this vocation I had was for the wrong reasons - it shouldn’t be about you,” he explained to critic Richard Schickel in the excellent book Conversations With Scorsese, “it should be about others.” Plus growing up with asthma and unable to play sports, he wasn’t sure he wanted a life that would add to his isolation. When Martin Scorsese decided he wasn’t going to be a priest, his reasons were simple.

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