This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.
Catherine O'Brien draws on the structure of Dante Alighieri'sDivine Comedyto explore Martin Scorsese's feature films fromWho's That Knocking at My Door(1967-69) toSilence(2016). This is the first full-length study to focus on the trajectory of faith and doubt during this period, taking very seriously the oft-quoted words of the director himself: 'My whole life has been movies and religion. That's it. Nothing else.' Films discussed includeGoodFellas,The Last Temptation of Christ,Taxi DriverandMean Streets, as well as the more recentThe Wolf of Wall Street.
In Dante's poem in 100 cantos, the Pilgrim is guided by the poet Virgil down through the circles of Hell inInferno; he then climbs the steep Mountain of the Seven Deadly Sins inPurgatory; and he finally encounters God inParadise. Embracing this popular analogy, this study envisions Scorsese as a contemporary Dante, with his filmic oeuvre offering the dimensions of a cinematicDivine Comedy.
Drawing on debates at the heart of religious studies, theology, literature and film, this book goes beyond existing explorations of religion in Scorsese's work to address issues of sin and salvation within the context of wider debates in eschatology and the afterlife.
Catherine O'Brienis Co-director of the Centre for Marian Studies, UK, and was Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and French at Kingston University, UK. She is the author of
The Celluloid Madonna(2011) and
Women's Fictional Responses to the First World War(1997), and co-editor of
Sacred Spaces/Forbidden Places(2000).
O'Brien's text is a welcome contribution and achieves a unique goal in the scholarship on Scorsese, as well as film and religion. This will be an indispensable text for scholars and admirers of Scorsese allÓd
![Martin Scorsese's Divine Comedy: Movies and Religion [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/2/5/1/2_4226854.jpg "Martin Scorsese's Divine Comedy: Movies and Religion [Paperback]")