Martin Scorsese’s production designers thoroughly master his vision bringing his unique gritty worlds to life.

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 environment 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 use very often 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.

It’s 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, that 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 obviously Martin Scorsese does not implement nor design these details. However, he does demand the very best from his crew which has served him well over the years. Luckily, success has also awarded him the opportunities 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. I warn you there are many film spoilers ahead including graphic images of violence and sexuality.

The Martin Scorsese Production Design Aesthetic

Who’s That Knocking At My Door (1967)

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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)

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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)

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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 prostitute.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Art Director: Charles Rosen

Set Decorator: Herbert F. Mulligan

Director of Photography: Michael Chapman

New York, New York (1977)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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In 1954, a U.S. Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderer, who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Production Designer: Dante Ferretti

Art Director: Robert Guerra

Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Director of Photography: Robert Richardson

Hugo (2011)

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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)

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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)

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In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored 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)

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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

What is your favourite Scorsese film? Why does it resonate with you?