Martin Scorsese-A Director who is Associated with the Thriller Genre

• Scorsese's movies are often rooted in his own Italian-American heritage, with its social codes and violence.
• When he first started out, Scorsese began to collaborate with Harvey Keitel, a then theatre actor. 'Who's That Knocking at My Door?' starred Keitel. The film had problems finding a distributor until Scorsese agreed to add a gratuitous sex scene, and it was released in 1969. 
• 1972's 'Boxcar Bertha', was another early movie of note
• Scorsese's legend as we know it was born with 1973's 'Mean Streets'. The star-director pairing with De Niro would be one of the most influential in film.
• The following year, Scorsese made 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More', which won Ellen Burstyn a best actress Oscar.  
• 1976 saw the release of one of the century's seminal movies, 'Taxi Driver'. De Niro starred as Travis Bickle, a disturbed Vietnam veteran and taxi driver, opposite Jodie Foster's teenage prostitute in need of redemption. Taxi Driver's highly violent finale was unprecedented and controversial, and would influence future directors including Quentin Tarantino. Scorsese appeared in the movie as a homicidal passenger.
• Next, De Niro was paired with Liza Minnelli – an extra-marital love interest of Scorsese's – in a dark musical. 'New York New York' was a flop in 1977, but the director returned to form in 1980 with his masterpiece 'Raging Bull', again starring De Niro.
• Based on the autobiography of boxer Jake La Motta, the script afforded Robert De Niro the role of his career. 'Raging Bull' brought Scorsese his first Oscar nod for best director, as well as another seven Academy Award nominations including best picture and best actor. Only De Niro and editor Schoonmaker
  
  took home statues.
• Buoyed by the success of 'Raging Bull', Scorsese attempted to fulfill a long-held ambition and make a Christ biopic, but was thwarted by the studio's reluctance to fund him. His personal life wasn't faring much better.
•  After another De Niro collaboration, 'The King of Comedy', he made a pool hustler drama 'The Color of Money', starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman. Scorsese's new wife, Barbara De Fina, was the producer. The movie was a hit with five Oscar nominations and Paul Newman winning best actor.
• Funded and finished at last, 'The Last Temptation of Christ' finally hit the silver screen in 1988, at which time Scorsese was accused of blasphemy by the church and few of his 'Raging Bull' fans were captivated. Still, he had finally crossed the ultimate biopic off his list.
• Despite a mixed reception to 'Last Temptation', it was becoming clear that the director's career was to be one of extraordinary longevity and consistent quality. In a 1990 return to more familiar subject matter, he released the hugely popular Italian-American gangster flick 'GoodFellas'. De Niro was cast alongside Ray Liotta in this supremely violent movie. It a was a career high that brought another best director nomination.
• The following year's 'Cape Fear' would be the most commercially successful film of the Scorsese's career to date. De Niro won a best actor Oscar for the 'Cape Fear' role in 1992.
• The De Fina marriage had ended in 1991 and as the '90s progressed, Scorsese's output defied easy categorisation. 'The Age of Innocence',seemed an unlikely offering, but earned respectful reviews. The mobster tale 'Casino', meanwhile, failed to have the impact of 'GoodFellas'. He next turned his attentions to another unlikely subject, the Dalai Lama. 'Kundun' (1997) was a visual and aural feast but, following on the heels of another similar-themed feature, (the Brad Pitt vehicle, 'Seven Years in Tibet'), it struggled at the box office, despite critical kudos. Scorsese met his fifth wife Helen Morris when she was editing the companion book to 'Kundun'.
• In the next decade, Scorsese returned to the subject of immigrant gangs with a twist. The epic 'Gangs of New York', about Irish immigrants to New York in the 19th century, was a box office smash and the first of a series of collaborations with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis also starred, and the film received 10 Oscar nominations, including Scorsese's fifth for best director.
• DiCaprio and Scorsese triumphed again with 'The Aviator', 2004's well-received Howard Hughes biopic. New talents portrayed Old Hollywood, including Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn and Jude Law as Eroll Flynn.
• Scorsese's next release, the documentary, "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home' (2005), reminded the world he was an avid music fan as well as a director. Dylan and The Band had been the subject of his documentary 'The Last Waltz' in 1978.
• DiCaprio starred again in 'The Departed', an Irish-American crime story set in South Boston. It was for The Departed that Scorsese finally won a best director Oscar. He had been nominated for the Academy Award on five previous occasions, and twice for best screenplay. As he received his first Oscar, Scorsese, who attended the ceremony with his wife Helen, joked: "Could you double-check the envelope?"
• In 2008, he returned to music documentary when he directed 'Shine a Light', which is a film depicting a concert by the Rolling Stones performed at New York City's Beacon Theatre in 2006. It also contains brief news and interviews from throughout the band's career. The world premiere of the film was at the 58th Berlinale Film Festival on 7 February 2008.
• The director once again collaborated with Di Caprio for the 2010 film 'Shutter Island' which starred the actor as a detective sent to investigate a disappearance from a mental asylum. It also starred Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Williams. On 20 May 2010, Shutter Island was Scorsese's highest-grossing film.
• He then delved into the world of TV, directing the pilot episode of 'Boardwalk Empire', which made its debut on 19 September 2010. It has just been recommissioned for a second series, of which Scorsese will be executive producer.

http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/martin-scorsese.html

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