Sanctum Sanctorum
Scorsese gave Murga two more gifts in their year of working together and they may have been the most valuable of all. He advised her as she produced successive versions of the treatment for her next film, and he invited her to watch as he and his legendary editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, began the months-long process of cutting and shaping Shutter Island. This was an unprecedented act of trust and respect.
Later, when I ask Scorsese why Murga was welcome where others were not, he cites, not for the first time, what he calls her quiet confidence and ability to listen and, above all, to understand.
As for the treatment for her next movie, it feels like another advance for Murga as a film-maker. Among other things, the story is set in a rougher world, not unlike those in some of Scorsese’s films, and it involves a patricide. Between the first and second drafts, she moved the killing off-screen, a decision Scorsese applauded.
“It was amazing to see how his mind works,” Murga says. “As he talked, he was ‘editing’ scene after scene. He suggested moving around some sequences and scenes. In the new combination of scenes and images, the film became much more powerful and moving. He was really enthusiastic about the new version and surprised at how much progress I’d made.”
Pointing out that Murga already has her own way of seeing the world, Scorsese says: “I’m just trying to encourage her vision, to encourage the way she speaks visually. I like other ways of telling stories [that are different from my own]. It gives me hope that I can find a new way of telling a story on film. This is the other thing about a mentor/protégé relationship: The mentor gets as much inspiration as the protégé.”
Extracted from an article written by Karen Durbin for Mentor & Protégé, a magazine documenting the 2008/2009 cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Karen Durbin is the film critic for the American edition of Elle magazine, and regularly contributes articles on film to the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Her work has appeared in many other publications. Before becoming a film critic, she was editor-in-chief at the Village Voice.