Page 86 - Sharp Winter 2024

FEATURE
infidelities in The Wolf of Wall Street. Killers of the Flower Moon proves a worthy addition to Scorsese’s oeuvre, using gritty cam- erawork and gripping narrative conceits to tell another tragically true story.
The casting, in particular, is a testament to Scorsese’s story- telling prowess, with Lily Gladstone’s restrained, quietly compelling performance already being forecasted as an Oscar-winning turn. “The intelligence and emotion that’s there in her face,” Scorsese says. “You see it, you feel it — it’s all working behind the eyes. You could see it happening. Also, her activism wasn’t overtaking the art. The art was in the activism. We would always check with her and work with her on the script. There were scenes that were added, scenes rewritten constantly.”
Though this was Scorsese’s first time working with Gladstone, he has long been known for his fierce collaborations, working extensively with actors from Joe Pesci to Harvey Keitel. Killers
of the Flower Moon, however, sees the filmmaker reunite with two of his most prolific artistic partners: De Niro and DiCaprio. It marks De Niro’s 10th picture with Scorsese, and the director describes his long-time leading man as “the only one who really knows where I come from.”
“I know his friends,” Scorsese explains. “His old friends. And we had a real testing ground in the ‘70s, where we tried everything and found that we trusted each other. It’s all about trust and love. That’s a big deal, because very often if an actor has a lot of power, and he had a lot of power at that time, an actor could take over your picture. Studio gets angry with you, the actor comes in and takes it over. With him, I never felt that. There was freedom, there was experimenting, and I wasn’t afraid to do something. I just did it.”
De Niro can even be credited for bringing DiCaprio to Scorsese’s attention, after working with him on 1993 drama
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