Scorsese honoured for lifetime achievement

Longtime friend and collaborator Robert De Niro presented Martin Scorsese with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes last night.

Such honours have become somewhat old hat for Scorsese and De Niro.

De Niro – who has apparently learned a thing or two from the plethora of comedies he has made in recent years – joked that after 20 years making movies together, they’ve spent the last 10 “presenting each other with awards”.

“We’re like an old married couple,” said De Niro. “We built a life together, we have great memories – we just don’t sleep together anymore.”

But De Niro’s finest line might have been wondering if the award was perhaps lesser than the man: “I can’t help thinking if times were a bit different, how proud Cecil B. DeMille would have been to be honoured with the Martin Scorsese Award.”

Taking the stage to a standing ovation at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the veteran director acknowledged that 'Goodfellas' didn’t seemingly have much in common with DeMille’s 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.

“When I got to make my own films, no matter what they looked like, the overall intention was always to tap into the powerful cinematic experience that characterised a DeMille picture,” said Scorsese.

He applauded “the big show, the spectacular” of DeMille’s extravagant films, saying they were “the shared landscape of our childhood”.

Only Scorsese would turn such an award into a tribute to its namesake.

Scorsese is a well-known film preservationist and he helped release an acclaimed new copy of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 classic 'The Red Shoes' this year.

He founded the Film Foundation in 1990 as a nonprofit organisation dedicated to preserving films.

He thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes, for its continued support and contributions to film preservation.

“As William Faulkner said: ’The past is never dead, it is not even past’,” said Scorsese.

“As far as I’m concerned, making films and preserving them are the same thing.”

Leonardo DiCaprio, who joined De Niro in the introduction, called Scorsese “a master filmmaker and a generous, patient teacher,” whose name defines cinema.

Though Scorsese’s 2007 Oscar win for directing 'The Departed' was a long time coming, he has had better success at the Globes, previously winning two Globes for best director, for 'The Departed' and 2001’s 'Gangs of New York'. He was nominated six other times.

While the 67-year-old Scorsese was being honoured for a lifetime of work in cinema, he’s as active as ever. His latest film, 'Shutter Island', a thriller starring DiCaprio, will be released on February 19.