From the mean streets of New York City to the days of Christ in desolate landscapes, let there be no question that Martin Scorsese is a master of visual storytelling. Great filmmakers don’t stop telling the story on the page, in the camera, or the cut; they continue to use the tool of environment and space: production design.
Often in Scorsese’s films, the atmosphere is another character. New York City is his most prominent character, no matter which decade he sets his story.
“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” -Martin Scorsese
The quote on the right is an important one for me and one I often use when designing a film. What you leave in the frame is as important as what you leave out. Everything in the frame should tell the story.
The details of the graphics in Travis Bickle’s apartment, the branded poker chips in Casino, which you may not have noticed, and the tiny tools dressed on the desk in Hugo’s living space make Scorsese’s worlds all-encompassing and believable. In a Scorsese film, the one thing you can always count on is that every detail is accounted for.
Now, Martin Scorsese doesn’t implement and design these details himself. However, he demands the best from his crew, which has served him well over the years. Luckily, success has also allowed him to work with the most renowned Production Designers in the world.
His work with Production Designer Dante Ferretti is particularly notable, and their collaborations together always leave me breathless. Hiring the right people, as they say, is half the battle. So here now are those worlds, including the official trailer for his latest film released today, Killers of the Flower Moon, masterfully production designed by Jack Fisk.
I warn you there are many film spoilers ahead, including graphic depictions of violence and sexuality.
Martin Scorsese Production Design: A Visual Retrospective of Every Martin Scorsese Film Share on X
Director, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese Production Design Retrospective
Who’s That Knocking At My Door (1967)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
J.R. is a typical Italian-American on the streets of New York. When he gets involved with a local girl, he decides to get married and settle down, but when he learns that she was once raped, he cannot handle it.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Club Designer: Victor Magnotta
Production Designer: N/A
Art Director: N/A
Set Decorator: N/A
Director of Photography: Richard H. Coll and Michael Wadleigh
Mean Streets (1973)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A small-time hood aspires to work his way up the ranks of a local mob.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Visual Consultant: David Nichols
Production Designer: N/A
Art Director: N/A
Set Decorator: N/A
Director of Photography: Kent L. Wakeford
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
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A recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Toby Carr Rafelson
Art Director: N/A
Set Decorator: N/A
Director of Photography: Kent L. Wakeford
Taxi Driver (1976)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action by attempting to liberate a presidential campaign worker and an underage sex worker.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Art Director: Charles Rosen
Set Decorator: Herbert F. Mulligan
Director of Photography: Michael Chapman
New York, New York (1977)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
An egotistical saxophonist and a young singer meet on VJ Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long, uphill climb.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Boris Leven
Art Director: Harry Kemm
Set Decorator: Robert De Vestel & Ruby R. Levitt
Director of Photography: László Kovács
Raging Bull (1980)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside of it.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Gene Rudolf
Art Director: Alan Manser (L.A) & Kirk Axtell (L.A)
Set Decorator: Phil Abramson & Frederic C. Weiler
Director of Photography: Michael Chapman
The King of Comedy (1983)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
Rupert Pupkin is a passionate yet unsuccessful comic who craves nothing more than to be in the spotlight and to achieve this, he stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Boris Leven
Art Director: Lawrence Miller & Edward Pisoni
Set Decorator: George DeTitta Sr. & Daniel Robert
Director of Photography: Fred Schuler
After Hours (1985)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho who he met that evening at a coffee shop.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Jeffrey Townsend
Art Director: Stephen J. Lineweaver
Set Decorator: Leslie A. Pope
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
The Color of Money (1996)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
Fast Eddie Felson teaches a cocky but immensely talented protégé the ropes of pool hustling, which in turn inspires him to make an unlikely comeback.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Boris Leven
Set Decorator: Karen O’Hara
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
The life of Jesus Christ, his journey through life as he faces the struggles all humans do, and his final temptation on the cross.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: John Beard
Art Director: Andrew Sanders
Set Decorator: Giorgio Desideri
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
Goodfellas (1990)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Kristi Zea
Art Director: Maher Ahmad
Set Decorator: Leslie Bloom
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
Cape Fear (1991)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Henry Bumstead
Art Director: Jack G. Taylor Jr.
Set Decorator: Alan Hicks
Director of Photography: Freddie Francis
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman’s cousin.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Speed Hopkins
Set Decorator: Robert J. Franco & Amy Marshall
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
Casino (1995)
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A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends: a mafia enforcer and a casino executive, compete against each other over a gambling empire, and over a fast living and fast loving socialite.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Jack G. Taylor Jr.
Set Decorator: Rick Simpson
Director of Photography: Robert Richardson
Kundun (1997)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet’s fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Alan Tomkins
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
Haunted by the patients he failed to save, an extremely burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three fraught and turbulent nights.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Robert Guerra
Set Decorator: William F. Reynolds
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
Gangs of New York (2002)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
In 1862, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father’s killer.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Stefano Maria Ortolani
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
The Aviator (2004)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A biopic depicting the early years of legendary Director and aviator Howard Hughes’ career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Robert Guerra & Claude Paré
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Robert Richardson
The Departed (2006)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Kristi Zea
Art Director: Teresa Carriker-Thayer
Set Decorator: Leslie E. Rollins
Director of Photography: Michael Ballhaus
Shutter Island (2010)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Director: Robert Guerra
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Robert Richardson
Hugo (2011)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
In Paris in 1931, an orphan named Hugo Cabret, who lives in the walls of a train station, is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Robert Richardson
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Bob Shaw
Art Director: Chris Shriver
Set Decorator: Ellen Christiansen
Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Silence (2016)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Supervising Art Director: Wen-Ying Huang
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto
The Irishman (2019)
Click to Enlarge Slideshow:
A mob hitman recalls his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Bob Shaw
Supervising Art Director: Laura Ballinger Gardner
Set Decorator: Regina Graves
Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one – until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production Designer: Jack Fisk
Supervising Art Director: Michael Diner
Set Decorator: Adam Willis
Director of Photography: Rodrigo Prieto
Costume Designer: Jacqueline West
What is your favourite Scorsese film? Why does it resonate with you?
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