Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then Β£6.99 a month
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_480x270/public/hero-images/promo205615802_2.jpg?itok=7zb7a9b6)
A Personal Journey⦠Part 2
The second part of Martin Scorsese's 'personal journey' through American Cinema.
Director: Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson
Overview
Martin Scorsese looks at the role of film as a technological innovation as directors use the challenges of widescreen, sound and colour to enhance their abilities to tell a story.
Using as his starting point the film industry's perennial antagonism between art and commerce, Scorsese structures his journey in different chapters, starting with this antagonism which he styles the "Director's Dilemma". He examines strategies adopted by directors for dealing with the problem, first considering the primary role of the "Director as Storyteller", then highlighting the director as "Illusionist", "Smuggler" and "Iconoclast". Under these chapter headings, he features and analyses the works of filmmakers from D.W. Griffith and F.W. Murnau, Jacques Tourneur and Sam Fuller, John Cassavetes and Stanley Kubrick. Illustrated with numerous extracts from a wide range of films, including classics of the silent era (`Intolerance' and `The Crowd') and exemplars of the major American genres: westerns (from `The Searchers' to `Unforgiven'), musicals (Busby Berkeley to `All That Jazz') and gangster films (`Public Enemy' to `Point Blank'). Mould-breaking masterpieces are also saluted, including `Sunrise' `Citizen Kane' and `2001 - A Space Odyssey'.
Related
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/wilding-02.jpg?itok=AmImzKtl)
Wilding Wilding
Documentary 2024 75 mins Director: David Allen
A dying landscape is healed against all odds, going on to thrive in astonishing ways, in this hopeful story of ecological regeneration.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/BIG_BANANA_FEET-06.jpg?itok=R8pRBszt)
Big Banana Feet Big Banana Feet
Documentary 1976 78 mins Director: Murray Grigor and Patrick Higson
Captivating 'lost' record of Billy Connolly on the cusp of international stardom during his 1975 tour of Ireland.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Name-Me-Lawand_1920-4.jpg?itok=pOFk3qQP)
Name Me Lawand Name Me Lawand
Documentary 2022 90 mins Director: Edward Lovelace
Edward Lovelace explores the power of communication and community with this rapturous portrait of a young deaf Kurdish boy.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/powell.jpg?itok=kEpa0KYh)
Visions, Dreams and Magic: The Unmade Films of Michael Powell Visions, Dreams and Magic: The Unmade Films of Michael Powell
Short documentary 2024 41 mins Director: Nic Wassell
Discover the unrealised visions and passion projects of revered British filmmaker Michael Powell, in this fascinating documentary featuring Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Anselm-02_1920.jpg?itok=IumdrCkA)
Anselm Anselm
Biopic 2023 94 mins Director: Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders' stately and beautifully scored study of Anselm Kiefer.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Flavio-03.jpg?itok=ya-CdsJe)
Flavio Flavio
Documentary 1964 11 mins Director: Gordon Parks
Photographer Gordon Parksβ remarkable film depicts a day in the life of an industrious 12-year-old boy living in the impoverished favela slums of Rio de Janeiro.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/81-2_1920x1080.jpg?itok=8lWMndpY)
8Β½ 8Β½
Drama 1963 138 mins Director: Federico Fellini
Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of writer's block with this magnum opus about a film director experiencing his own creative crisis.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/693ac190e36bae5c9e71b7cbe647cba5.jpg?itok=KMfFroQA)
Pasolini Pasolini
Biopic 2014 84 mins Director: Abel Ferrara
Willem Dafoe plays the controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in this dark, daring drama about the directorβs final days, from Abel Ferrara.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Room%2520237_1280x720.jpg?itok=4cpKloiv)
Room 237 Room 237
Documentary 2012 103 mins Director: Rodney Ascher
Rodney Ascher's enigmatic essay film weaves together the contrasting theories of five different narrators who believe Stanley Kubrick deliberately buried hidden messages in his 1980 adaptation of Stephen Kingβs novel.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo206027066_2.jpg?itok=nzJROhJe)
Lotte Reiniger's Art Lotte Reiniger's Art
Documentary 1970 17 mins Director: John Isaacs
The short documentary gives us a wonderful insight into the enchanting animated film world of Lotte Reiniger.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Mantinee_1920x1080v3.jpg?itok=Cm3Dtbfv)
Matinee Matinee
Comedy 1993 99 mins Director: Joe Dante
Joe Dante (Gremlins) directs this affectionate homage to 1950s sci-fi cinema, with John Goodman as a cigar-chomping B-movie producer trying to cash in on the Cuban missile crisis.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/irma-vep-3.jpg?itok=xmlF4VZx)
Irma Vep Irma Vep
Drama 1996 99 mins Director: Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas' sexy and stylish ode to the madness of filmmaking, with Maggie Cheung as the Hong Kong movie star playing a Catwoman-style anti-heroine.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo205615876_2.jpg?itok=zbmoKh7D)
A Personal Journey⦠Part 3 A Personal Journey⦠Part 3
Documentary 1995 74 mins Director: Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson
The third part of Martin Scorsese's 'personal journey' through American Cinema
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/e846cac4b12392b870c7c77884d707d2.jpg?itok=9EJP37hR)
A Personal Journey... Part 1 A Personal Journey... Part 1
Documentary 1995 72 mins Director: Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson
The first part of Martin Scorsese's 'personal journey' through American Cinema.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Girls-Will-Be-Girls-01_0.jpg?itok=-YRySROf)
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Romance 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of a 2024 Sundance audience award
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Blackbird-Blackberry-07.jpg?itok=b_r72-od)
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Drama 2023 110 mins Director: Elene Naveriani
A fiercely independent womanβs tranquillity is disturbed by an unexpected affair, in this wry, tender and understated drama from Georgia.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/MyFFF22_L-AMANT_STILL1-1080.jpg?itok=D7JQuGkW)
The Lover The Lover
Drama 1992 115 mins Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud's powerful, intimate, and sensual adaptation of the best-selling novel by Marguerite Duras.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Green-Border-01.jpg?itok=-YVcr1Za)
Green Border Green Border
Drama 2023 152 mins Director: Agnieszka Holland, Katarzyna Warzecha and Kamila Tarabura
Three-time Oscar-nominee Agnieszka Holland returns with a powerful, timely and unflinching exploration of the current migrant crisis.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/205ad09ed1dcf475ad534e2af3804bd0.jpg?itok=mtpcER2K)
Prostitute Prostitute
Drama 1981 98 mins Director: Tony Garnett
Explicit and controversial drama. An ambitious working girl moves to London hoping to securing wealthier patrons, while her social worker friend fights to change antiquated prostitution laws.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Power-Alley_1.jpg?itok=VKVq6n7W)
Power Alley Power Alley
Drama 2023 100 mins Director: Lillah Halla
Queer sisterhood and collective power lie at the heart of this arresting Brazilian debut, in which a promising volleyball player faces an unwanted pregnancy.