Mean Streets
Where the DNA of Mean Streets travels
Films that shaped it
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The Italian Neo-Realism movement, and De Sica's The Bicycle Thieves and Rossellini's Rome, Open City, were really important. And then the French New Wave, Godard's Breathless in particular, influenced me. The whole idea of a film being alive, on the streets, no sets, capturing the moment – that was the dream for Mean Streets.
Films it shaped
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When I was 10, a teacher showed us Scorsese’s 'Mean Streets,' and I was like, 'Oh my god, I want to be Martin Scorsese.' It was the first time I saw myself reflected on the screen. Not literally, but I connected to it. It was about people I knew, a milieu I understood. The use of music, the rawness, the honesty. It showed me cinema could be about anything and everything.
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I saw Mean Streets a lot when I was growing up and it taught me how to put raw energy on screen, how to film friendship in that way.
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...the latter practically playing like a legacy sequel to Good Fellas and Mean Streets, exploring and following up on similar ideas...
