Settling the Scorsese in 2022

For the first time ever in 2021, I did two intertwined bi-monthly series -- I'm Thinking of Kaufman Things and All's Well That Ends Welles -- the former running every other month starting in January, the latter every other month starting in February. Although this sounds funny to say about six additional movies over the course of a whole year, it was too much. I decided I needed at least every other month off from a specific obligation to this blog, even if it was a self-imposed obligation.

But one of the two formats for my 2021 bi-monthly series was something I really enjoyed and want to continue in 2022, starting in February, even if it was a bit misconceived from the start. (Credit where credit is due, though: It was actually a format I first did in 2019 with Spike Lee.)

In All's Well That Ends Welles, I wanted to use the six bi-monthly slots to finish the films Orson Welles directed that I hadn't seen. Unfortunately, that wasn't six films, but eight -- and that's not including some stuff that I decided didn't quite qualify as a directorial feature. So I had to double up in two different months, and I still don't know, given the wonky career he had, whether I can rightly say I've watched every "film" where Welles was the primary creative force.

Things will be a lot cleaner in 2022 when I shift focus to Martin Scorsese, leading up to the release of his new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, currently planned for late 2022.

There are, indeed, exactly six films Scorsese has directed that I have not yet seen, though none from the past 25 years. Chronologically, they are as follows:

Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1967)
New York, New York (1977)
The Color of Money (1986)
New York Stories (1989)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Kundun (1997)

The fact of having exactly six titles pleases me -- even though Scorsese directed only one third of New York Stories -- but that doesn't mean there aren't challenges ahead in this series. Or at least one challenge, which was that at the time I originally checked a few months back, I could not find a good way to see New York, New York. Given that it is a Scorsese film, I have to imagine a method will be revealed to me that does not involve piracy, but for now I don't know what that method is. As currently scheduled, I've got until April to figure that out.

And if for some reason I can't find it -- thereby fatally undermining the inspiration for the series -- at least I can slot in Killers of the Flower Moon as the last movie, if the timing works out for that.

Some other notes on the films on the docket:

I have not seen The Hustler, so I should probably watch that before I get to The Color of Money in June.

I can't believe I haven't yet watched The Age of Innocence, as I listened to Edith Wharton's novel on audio book a full ten years ago and loved it. 

Killers of the Flower Moon was not actually part of the inspiration for this series. I don't know all that much about it, except that it involves Native American subject matter. It was more of a retroactive justification for the series that created a bit more news worthiness.

To be honest, the way I settled on Scorsese -- so to speak -- was that I tried to think of another great director whose filmography might require only a few more viewings from me to complete, and Scorsese jumps to mind in any conversation that starts with brainstorming great directors.

The clincher? I knew that Settling the Scorsese would make a great name for the series.

So indeed, I will start settling the score with Marty in February with Who's That Knocking at My Door?, another movie I know almost nothing about.