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jimmyconbae:

Goodfellas was released on September 19, 1990. 

In the late 80’s, I read a book called Wise Guy, written by a journalist named Nick Pileggi. I was enthralled and when I put it down I had already made up my mind that I would make it into a movie. And I knew right away how I wanted to make it. I wanted the speed and the feel of it to reflect the way of life in the book - it had to feel like it was going to spin out of control at any moment, just like the lives led by Henry Hill and his friends. They broke all the rules, so the movie needed to attempt to do the same - multiple narrators, freeze frames, nonstop popular music on the soundtrack powering and pushing the action forward in synch with the drugs, the sex, the adrenaline and euphoria of so much money, so much “plunder” as the ancients called it, so much unchecked power. And it needed to feel abundant. Every frame had to be packed with motion and detail, so that the audience would suddenly find itself immersed in this way of life - the clothes, the bars and restaurants and nightclubs and apartments, the gestures, the food, the sense of humor, the values, all of it. It was a way of life that I’d seen around me when I was young. I had touched on it in some of my previous pictures and this time I wanted to come at it from another angle. To pull it off, I needed just the right collaborators. I had a brilliant team, including the DP Michael Ballhaus, my longtime friend and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Nick Pileggi himself, and a brilliant cast of fearless actors from Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino right down to the smallest walk-on. And I’m not forgetting my mother and father. Goodfellas was a great challenge, a wonderful adventure, and a picture that I’m very proud to have made.

                                                                                                                             - Martin Scorsese

(via pricklylegs)

Sep 19, 2016

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