Scorsese, TCM Debut Documentary

Cable World, Feb 7, 2000 by Mike Reynolds

Noted director Martin Scorsese will share his personal passion for classic films with Turner Classic Movies' love for vintage movies, beginning, appropriately enough, on Valentine's Day.

TCM will serve up the world television premiere of A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies, a three-part documentary series featuring his reflections on the role of director on American filmmaking, illustrated by stories and clips from big-budget classics and less-honored films alike.

The network kicks off the five-day festival with "The Director's Dilemma" portion of the documentary, showcasing such films as The Bad and the Beautiful that highlight the creative battle between directors and studios they worked for (Feb. 14 at 8 p.m.). The following night, TCM and Scorsese look at "The Director as Illusionist," before exploring "The Director as Iconoclast," including Citizen Kane, Feb. 16.

The documentary itself will be flanked by 16 films that influenced Scorsese as well as three of his early pictures: Alice Doesn't Live Here AnyMore, New York, New York and The Last Waltz.

The TCM debut marks the first mass-screening for A Personal Journey, which had limited engagements in Manhattan and Los Angeles during 1995 and was available as a video set from Miramax/Buena Vista in 1998. Moreover, Scorsese will also provide viewers with additional information via intros and other interstitials shot in January.

"Just as Scorsese wanted to spread the gospel about classic films to young directors so they would know where they came from, this festival is another way for us to connect to a younger audience through a modern director," said TCM EVP/GM Tom Karsch, who noted that the service paid more for A Personal Journey than any other single program in its history when it acquired the rights last year. "If it exposes and pulls more people to the service then it has done its job."

In addition to a flood of cross-channel spots, TCM is touting the project through what Karsch calls "a pretty solid print campaign" with ads in Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, People and Vanity Fair.