This book is a study of Martin Scorsese's early career, from his student shorts films to New York, New York. Leighton Grist explores the relationship between the issue of film authorship and a period of American cinema marked by crisis and change. It is a stimulating demonstration of sustained textual analysis, but also a significant intervention in the debates surrounding film authorship and an examination of the forces that shape films and Scorsese's authorial discourse.

Martin Scorsese is one of the world's great filmmakers, and a genuine auteur. A follow up to The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1963-77, this book covers his work from The Last Waltz to Bringing Out the Dead. Central is the detailed, theoretically informed discussion of all of the Scorsese-directed features released during this period, which, for Scorsese, was marked by both considerable artistic achievement and a shifting and at times uncertain relationship with the Hollywood film industry. Filmic discussion is correspondingly situated in relation to a range of forces and developments - institutional, but also of larger historical reference - that shape the films and Scorsese's authorial discourse. Another stimulating demonstration of sustained textual analysis, The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1978-99 presents an extended critical affirmation of the continuing pertinence of the concept of film authorship and illuminates Hollywood cinema from the late 1970s to the turn of the millennium. Like its predecessor, the book is about authorship and context. Discussion of the films is founded upon a combination of formal, psychoanalytic, and ideological approaches.

A study of Martin Scorsese's early career, from his student short films to New York, New York. As well as discussing the films in detail, they are considered in relation both to the issue of film authorship and a period of American cinema marked by crisis and change. Looking at both Scorsese's film-making and the debates surrounding film authorship, this book is also about American film making in the sixties and seventies - about, in short, authorship and context.

A detailed, theoretically attuned analysis of all of the Scorsese-directed features from The Last Waltz to Bringing Out the Dead . Grist illuminates Scorsese's authorship, but also reflects back upon a range of informing contexts.