Chris Pizzello/Associated Press Martin ScorseseSpeak to Martin Scorsese for even a few minutes on one of his favorite subjects â€" movies; rock music; the best way for Robert De Niro to break down an door in “Raging Bull†â€" and you are likely to get an enthusiastic barrage of verbiage as rich and dense as any academic lecture. (With, perhaps, a few colorful words that your college film professor would never say.)
So what happens when Mr. Scorsese, th celebrated director of “Taxi Driver,†“Goodfellas†and “The Departed,†is invited to give a formal lecture by the National Endowment for the Humanities Audiences will find out when he gives its 2013 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities.
The organization said on Tuesday that Mr. Scorsese will be its 42nd Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities, a prestigious honor that has previously gone to authors like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Toni Morrison and Robert Penn Warren.
Jim Leach, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said in a statement: “Martin Scorsese is a scholar of, advocate for, and icon of American cinema. He is the first filmmaker designated as a Jefferson Lecturer, but he follows in the tradition of earlier speakers like John Updike, Barbara Tuchman, and Arthur Miller in revealing a profound understanding and empathy for the human condition.â€
Mr. Scorsese’s lecture, on “the evolution of his films, the art of storytelling, and the inspiration! he draws from the humanities,†will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on April 1. Requests for free tickets can be made starting March 11 at neh.gov, and the lecture will also be streamed live from that site.
Mr. Scorsese will also receive a $10,000 honorarium â€" not quite as much as the Lufthansa heist, but it’s nice.
