Scorsese Brings the Saints to Life
TORONTO – Martin Scorsese’s daughter, Francesca Scorsese, is currently co-directing the second season of her father’s docuseries The Saints. She will be co-directing alongside her father, Matti Leshem, Rubin Stein and Devereux Milburn, with production running until August 5th 2025. The first season began airing on Fox Nation Streaming Platform last November, and highlighted the stories of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Sebastian, Joan of Arc and Father Maximilian Kolbe.
While describing the project, Scorsese noted: “I have lived with the stories of the saints all my life, thinking about their words and actions, imagining the worlds they inhabited, the choices they had to face, the examples they gave”.
The final three episodes of season one – released during the Easter season – spotlighted Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black and Francis of Assisi. “Before Francis of Assisi stepped into God’s light, he was a minstrel, fond of partying. The pampered son of a wealthy cloth merchant”, explains the Director. Francis of Assisi’s story begins as escalating tensions with neighbouring Perugia threaten to erupt into a treacherous war.
The episodes are well researched, of course, and while critics have pointed to some minor historical inaccuracies, the series on the whole presents a largely faithful account. Not surprisingly, Scorsese took seven years to put the project together, which included visiting the Irish Dominican Order at San Clemente in Rome to research matters of faith.
So divested is the Director in the lives of the Saints and their historicity, that each episode ends with a round table discussion between Scorsese and friends – which includes a priest Fr. James Martin, an academic, and a poet-professor. “Maybe the fact that there are saints, were saints, and still are saints is something that’s lost on our newest generation. Because we don’t live with them. So we thought this was a good attempt to try and understand what that is and what faith is, really”.
The 82-year-old Director is showing no signs of slowing down either, having announced another faith-based film earlier this year – A Life of Jesus. The script was completed in January of this year and was inspired by Scorsese’s time with Pope Francis at the “Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination,” a conference that brought artists together from around the globe. Shortly after meeting the Pope, Scorsese declared, “I have responded to the pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a screenplay for a film about Jesus”.
While some might find Scorsese’s devotion to religion surprising, he’s long told the story of his short-lived stint in the seminary. He attended seminary school [for a year] as a teenager but was deemed too unfocused, and eventually kicked out. Asthmatic as a child, he was unable to play sports, and so he found refuge in movie theatres and alter-boying at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. “There was a special feeling in that cathedral and I liked it. There was a peace of mind, and outside, there was nothing but strife. The church was something very special and I took it very seriously”.
“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” is available to stream on Fox Nation. You can also watch it on Roku through Fubo and The Roku Channel.
(Images courtesy of Lionsgate Alternative Television)
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
