The unfortunate thing was, they gave me no more than a couple hours’ notice. At the time, I had not even seen Taxi Driver, or Goodfellas. Yet Scorsese, I was told, had watched my film already.

I was thoroughly unprepared.

Thelma Schoonmaker greeted me at the door. The woman who had edited practically every Scorsese film since Raging Bull. But I had no idea who she was. Nice lady, I thought. She gave me a little tour of his studio, his screening rooms, his [their] editing rooms. His impressive archive of films on laser disk. And then we stepped into his office.

Martin Scorsese was intimidating, to say the least. But very jovial, very talkative, and he took me seriously. (Or convinced me, at least.) I pretty much kept my mouth shut. Every 30 seconds he would mention an actor, producer, director or film title I had never heard of before. I was stunned just to be in his presence. He liked my film, he said. “How did you do the little creatures?” I tried to explain how I figured out the basics of 3D animation. His eyes lit up and he started talking about the digital effects in The Aviator.

The juxtaposition of scales was overpowering. I felt like I was in a movie. Why he spent so much time with me I do not know, but it was amazing just to be in his presence. A few weeks afterwards I labored over a thank-you card, in which I expressed the overwhelming impression I had gotten that I don’t know enough about anything. I specially don’t know enough about film history and foreign cinema. I asked if he had any suggestions for where to start.

A few weeks later, I got a reply — he had his assistant send me several books and DVDs (including “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies“)… and also the list of 39 Foreign Films to watch!