Let"s Party with Marty: A Martin Scorsese Podcast

On our latest episode Sarah & MJ discuss 1973's Mean Streets, the film many fans see as the true beginning of Martin Scorsese's career. We talk about the incredible chemistry between Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, the pros and cons of needle drops in films, and why it is impossible to ignore the religious aspects of Scorsese's pictures.

On this week's episode Sarah and MJ talk about Bernardo Bertolucci's 1964 movie, Before the Revolution. Chosen by Martin Scorsese as the companion film for Mean Streets, there's plenty to unpack here and lots of important historical context that makes this an incredibly interesting film.

This week Sarah and MJ discuss Scorsese's sophomore feature, 1972's Boxcar Bertha. They get into "the Roger Corman of it all," the crucial ingredient missing from this Marty picture and why tonally this film has more in common with Looney Tunes ...

On this week's episode, Sarah and MJ talk about the 1950s gangster movie, Guns Don't Argue. They examine its influence on Marty — and Jean-Luc Godard — when it came to making a movie for pennies, talk more broadly about why low budget doesn't necessarily mean low quality, and discuss the power of art to stay with you from a young age. Plus some controversial Beatles takes ... this episode has it all!

Sarah and MJ jump into talking about the first Scorsese picture on their journey and boy, do they make the most of it. They cover everything from the influence of Shadows on Who's That Knocking At My Door? to debut features, Marty's twisted sense of humor. And, of course, the faith tradition that permeates Marty's work.

On the inaugural episode of Let's Party with Marty, Sarah and MJ sit down to discuss John Cassavete's directorial debut, and the film that inspired Scorsese to pick up a camera, Shadows. They talk about the film as an overlooked piece of counterculture art that helped usher in the idea of independent filmmaking and paved the way for films like Dazed and Confused and even Clerks. They also talk about the influence of the film they see across Scorsese's entire career.

Welcome to Let's Party with Marty, a podcast where Sarah Buddery and MJ Smith are going to take a deep dive into Martin Scorsese's filmography, as well as the films on his Letterboxd list that he views as "Companions" to his own body of work.