New York, NYU, and the European Influence: What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?; It’s Not Just You, Murray!; The Big Shave

Abstract

As an avowedly ‘personal’ director, Scorsese has had his films repeatedly discussed in relation to his biography. Too often this has been the chief or sole reference point, resulting in readings that place the films as unproblematically direct reflections of Scorsese’s life and/or construct a simplistic, hagiographic opposition between Scorsese as auteur and the commercial imperatives of Hollywood. However, not only does the biographical reference of Scorsese’s films vary, but his personal history — while important — is just one of a complex of determinants on his work. Further, this personal history requires to be considered as a particularized articulation of a larger historical context.