The restless Scorsese

Three years ago,The Departed won him his first Oscar,after more than four decades of moviemaking; he can afford to rest. But he appears,determined to continue making the kind of film that will,like Shutter Island,become something else for him.

Based on an exceptionally tricky 2003 mystery novel by Dennis Lehane,Shutter Island is a true oddity,as isolated and enigmatic as the gloomy,rain-whipped island on which the action takes place. The hero,a federal marshal named Teddy Daniels Leonardo DiCaprio,is a tormented soul,the type of man to whom Scorsese has never been a stranger,from his first movie,Whos That Knocking at My Door? 1968,through Mean Streets 1973 Taxi Driver 1976,Raging Bull 1980 and The Aviator 2004. Teddys emotional troubles manifest themselves as nightmaresmany of them about his dead wife.

Teddy,accompanied by his curiously passive partner,Chuck Mark Ruffalo,is on Shutter Island to investigate a disappearance. This island houses an asylum for the criminally insane,one of whoma woman who murdered her childrenhas somehow managed to vanish from her cell. We learn fairly early on that Teddy might have other agendas: the man he believes killed his wife may be an inmate,and hes suspicious of the motives of the asylums psychiatric staff,played by Ben Kingsley and the great,gaunt Max von Sydow.

What makes Shutter Island feel so peculiar for this director to have made is the claustrophobia,the tight,hermetic,locked-down structure. Scorseses films are generally a lot more expansive. Scorsese makes the structure sound delicate: We found that just putting in one reaction shot could throw the scene off completely. The movies balance is,like its heros,fragile.

Its hard not to suspect,as you listen to him discoursing about the technical problems of the film that he actually thrives on difficulty. DiCaprio described the process of working out the nuances of Teddys character as pretty intense,because I didnt really understand how emotionally complex this character is until Marty and I started breaking down this cathartic journey he goes on. He added,When youre working with someone like Martin Scorsese,you know youre going to have to go places emotionally that you didnt ever foresee.

For Scorsese thats entertainment. Some filmmakers as they grow older begin to pare down their styles,to produce mellow,autumnal works that attempt to express with serene simplicity the accrued wisdom of their lives. Martin Scorseses movies have always been fueled by nervous energy and huge uprushes of adrenaline.

His drugs of choice are primarily the memory of old movies. I love memory, Scorsese said,Im a preservationist. He always shows classic films to his cast and crew. We saw Laura,Out of the Past and of course Vertigo, DiCaprio said,all these movies about obsessed detectives coming to terms with themselves through their investigations. He added: Its almost like hes accessing his dreams,the dreams being all those movies. Theyre like memories coming back to him. That nervous sense of not knowing exactly where you areseems somehow vitally important to Scorsese.

He finds a way to remain charged up,by any means ,even if it involves making a film as relentlessly and baroquely interior as Shutter Island. Whatever works. And what works for Scorsese,usually,is some form of unease. He may or may not be stuck in the 50s,but for him its always,one way or another,an age of anxiety.