Martin Scorsese Shouted At By Academy Members At Wolf Of Wall Street ... - Vanity Fair

Martin Scorsese's new film The Wolf of Wall Street is amoral and revolting—and that's coming from somebody who really liked it^[1] . So it’s no wonder that the three-hour celebration of drugs, orgies, and Jonah Hill’s eerily white teeth didn’t sit that well with the awards-giving body that adored The Artist and The King’s Speech.

According to a Facebook post^[2] from actress Hope Holiday, a Saturday screening of The Wolf of Wall Street was “torture,” and ended with a head-on confrontation between Scorsese and an outraged screenwriter who started screaming “Shame on you!” Holiday continued in the comments section, saying she joined in—“you ought be ashamed of yourself”—and “a fight almost ensued—I ran down the stairs.” The Wrap^[3] checked in with Paramount, who said that no one “screamed” at the director, but admitted that one person gave Scorsese “a negative comment.” And as we all know from passive-aggressive fights at Christmas dinner tables past, what one person calls “a negative comment” can be pretty much anything, up to and including a verbal barrage against at one of the greatest living directors.

Holiday, who had roles in 1960’s The Apartment and 1965’s The Rounders, seems representative of the older segment of Academy members turned off by some newer movies—in the comments of her Facebook post she admitted she liked American Hustle but found it “confusing,” and asked “Are there really any good films any more? Maybe it's just me.” Though Oscars ballots are technically kept secret, voters like Holiday get the blame for everything from Brokeback Mountain’s Oscar loss (see: Ernest Borgnine’s famous comments^[4] about John Wayne rolling over in his grave) to The King’s Speech edging out The Social Network for Best Picture. The Wolf of Wall Street is a tough sell for any crowd—if you go see it with your family this holiday season, God be with you—but the star power and Scorsese’s own Oscar-winning past might have suggested an easier sell with the Academy than this. We’d take the opportunity to shout “Shame on you! Open yourself up to different films and points of view!” but we're saving all of our “negative comment” energy for Christmas Eve.

References

1. ^{^} really liked it (www.vanityfair.com)


2. ^{^} Facebook post (www.vanityfair.com)


3. ^{^} The Wrap (www.vanityfair.com)


4. ^{^} famous comments (www.vanityfair.com)