Transcript. Excerpt. Scorsese. MeanStreet1973.DVD.

In the meantime, I was still being split between european films, primarilybecause theItalianNeoRealism I saw on television when I was fiveorsixyearsold, [RomaCitaApertta1945], [Paisà1946], [LadriDiBiciclette1948], [SciusciàRagazzi1946], and seeing the effect on my family, knowing that that has certain kinds of truth to it. I didn't quite understand when I was fiveorsix, but I understood that it was the realthing. But at the same time, we had extraordinary output ofHollywood. I actuallythought, having gone through the process of makingWho'sThatKnocking, not being verysuccesful, writing the scripts ofMeanStreets over the period of fiveorsixyears, not being able to get it made. I actuallythought, No, no, I was going to be a filmdirector, you know. Some of the shortfilms I did atNYU was sort of comedies in a way. They were veryjuvenile, veryadolescent, but I thought I could direct a genrefilm, I thought I could directHollywoodfilms. There was that split in me, which probablystillpersists. until today. But, there was no doubt that I would keep being drawn towards the europeanCinema. And I think Cassavetes came out of the  european style. I reallybelieve that. So, when he sawWho'sThatKnocking, he reallyencouraged me, and when I was inLosAngeles, he encouraged me for. I was, then, able to directBoxcarBertha forRogerCorman, and it was veryimportant to do that in twentyfourdays, because What Corman gave us is the discipline of how to make a film. Twentyfourdays [of] shooting, sixdays a week, six[AM] in the morning to ten[PM], whatever it is. You design your shots. Rehearse your actors, get [save] it on film. You have locomotives, that's your problem. Do thehardest shots first. You know, learn how to make a picture, because all the other films we'd been making, we did it when we had the time. Borrowed cameras and actors coming in and out, because they had maybe threeorfourmonths in between shooting scenes. It kind  of was reallyimportant for me to be able to do the exploitationfilm forCorman, and I thought that's what I'd be doing. So, when I screenedBoxcarBertha  forJohnCassavetes to get sort of his blessing. After his office inUniversal. He was in his office, he asked me to come in, so I went in, and he kind of smiled and looked and said, Marty, come here, and he hugged me, and he held me. He looked in my eyes, and he said, You spent a year of your life making shit. He said, you know, You reallyreallyshould do kind of film you did inWho'sThatKnocking. It's a good film. You should make that. Don't you have anything that you could pull together that is in that line in a way, rather than this kind of thing? I thought it was rather. It was good, because he did it with love, you know. A couple of my friends, having seenBoxcar[Bertha], and Boxcar has its own. I have an affection for the movie forBarbaraHershey, DavidCarradine, ** and everybody [else]. It was a great experience, because I learned how to make a picture with some sort of schedule and discipline.