Scorsese announces that he is preparing a film about Jesus after accepting the "commission" of the Pope

Scorsese announces that he is preparing a film about Jesus after accepting the "commission" of the Pope

Pope Francis held a meeting over the weekend with more than 40 artists, writers and film directors at the Vatican, including American Martin Scorsese, who was passing through Rome to present his new film, "Killers of The Flower Moon", after its triumphant visit to Cannes. In that meeting, Francisco presented the creators with a challenge. "I issue you a challenge," he told them. "It is not so much that you 'explain' the mystery of Christwhich in reality is inexhaustible, but to make us touch it, that we feel it immediately close, give it to us as a living reality, and make us capture the beauty of its promise».

The Pope went a little further in his request: "We need the genius of a new language, of strong stories and images, of writers, poets, artists capable of shouting the Gospel message to the world, of making us see Jesus», he asked the creators present at the meeting.

Only a few hours later, Scorsese, without leaving Rome, announced to those present at a conference that he had accepted the challenge: "I'm already imagining and I'm going to start writing a script for a movie about Jesus"said the director of "Taxi Driver" in the framework of a meeting organized by the University of Georgetown and the Italian magazine of the Jesuits "La Civiltà Cattolica".

This last institution issued a press release that Scorsese made the announcement during a conversation about his career with the director of the magazine Antonio Spadaro. in the talk, Scorsese mentioned his "admiration for the immediacy of the Jesus of Pasolini's "Gospel according to Saint Matthew", the experience and meaning of "The Last Temptation of Christ", and the next step in his research on the figure of Jesus, who represents the film ''Silence''». "In the end, the dialogue became more personal and Scorsese talked about his experience of (God's) grace and mercy, and the presence of violence both in his life and in his films," the statement added. institution in a statement.