#Lessons Under Lockdown: Martin Scorsese’s Quarantine Short

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• Meg Shields
• June 9, 2020

Shot on a smartphone while quarantined in his home office, here’s the short film Martin Scorsese made under quarantine lockdown.

Killers of the Flower Moon may be postponed due to COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean that Martin Scorsese is taking a break. Most of us comfortably watched The Irishman at home, and that’s exactly where Scorsese created his new short film. On a smartphone no less.

These days it’s difficult to watch anything without finding connections to the ongoing global pandemic. And Scorsese hasn’t been spared. The short film (or is it a video essay? The line is compellingly fuzzy here) premiered on the last episode of the BBC program Lockdown Culture with Mary Beard, originally titled Front Row Late. In it, the filmmaker sets Alfred Hitchock’s The Wrong Man and Robert Siodmak’s The Killers alongside the loneliness, unexpected halt, and re-jigged stakes that the coronavirus has visited upon the world.

“Time takes on another aspect,” Scorsese observes, as Henry Fonda peers through the bars on the television in the director’s home office. “Ultimately that time has to be worth it even if it’s just existing…breathing if you can, under these circumstances.”

For those with access to the BBC iPlayer, you can watch Martin Scorsese’s short here. For everyone else, you can watch on Twitter in three parts, below:

pic.twitter.com/nvdyLOE9Qh

— Ian Mantgani (@mant_a_tangi) May 28, 2020

pic.twitter.com/EjaFwQTL6R

— Ian Mantgani (@mant_a_tangi) May 28, 2020

Who made this?

Lockdown Culture with Mary Beard is a show hosted by (hold your applause) the esteemed classicist/pop culture icon Dame Mary Beard. She interviews creatives from her studio at home with a focus on the long-term cultural impact of Covid-19. Scorsese needs no introduction, we hope. If you need a refresher, here’s his filmography, ranked.

More Videos Like This

• Martin Scorsese’s shorts have been available on The Criterion Channel for some time now (e.g., The Big Shave, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, and It’s Not Just You, Murray!).
• Here’s Scorsese talking to the BAFTA Guru about his advice to folks trying to get into the film industry
• Here’s an episode of Blank on Blank where (in archival audio) Martin Scorsese discusses the importance of framing
• Scorsese on the importance of visual literacy
• A 22-Minute interview from 1970 with a 27-year-old Martin Scorsese
• Hell, you’ve made it this far, for more stay-at-home Marty energy, go follow the man’s Instagram account