- Martin Scorsese met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and announced that he will make a film about Jesus in response to the call of the Holy Father.
- During the meeting, they talked about Scorsese’s films and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film, “The Gospel according to Saint Matthew.”
- Although no details were given about the new film, there is speculation that it could be his next project.
Martin Scorsese is touring Italy after having participated in the Cannes Film Festival.
As part of the visit, the acclaimed director met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and, in that setting, announced that he will make a film about Jesus.
“I responded to the pope’s request to artists in the only way I know how: by writing a script for a movie about Jesus,” Scorsese said at a conference in Rome. “We are about to start,” added the director, suggesting that this could be his next film.
Over the weekend, Scorsese and his wife Helen Morris attended a conference titled “The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination” and met with the Pope in a very brief private audience at the Vatican.
The conference was organized by the Jesuit publication La Civilta Cattolica and Georgetown University.
Antonio Spadaro, religious newspaper editorHe said that in the conversation with Francis, Scorsese alternated references to his films and personal anecdotes and explained “the way in which he was moved by the Holy Father’s call” for us to see Jesus, “he said.
During the conversation Scorsese said he admired “The Gospel according to Saint Matthew”, by Pier Paolo Pasolini. And he also spoke to the Pope about the meaning of his own film, “The Last Temptation of Christ” from 1988.
They also discussed Scorsese’s film “Silence,” which tells of the persecution of Christian Jesuits in 17th-century Japan. That film was screened in 2016 at the Vatican. Francis is the first Jesuit pope and it is known that he joined the Jesuit order in hopes of becoming a missionary to Japan.
Scorsese and the Pope in Rome
Beyond the statements at the conference, Scorsese did not provide further details about the Jesus film. Rick Yorn, his agent, did not respond to a request for more information from Variety.
Scorsese’s tour of Italy also includes attending screenings of his films this Monday May 29 in Rome, a master class this Tuesday the 30th for students of the Centro Sperimentale film school in Rome and a conference in Bologna.
Now read:
This would be the Holy Week of Pope Francis, according to IA
IA shows Pope Francis as a fashion icon “from the Vatican to the catwalks”
Pope Francis asks the World Cup champion to celebrate