Martin Scorsese’s film school for actors

Martin Scorsese stands out for his commitment to, and knowledge of, film history. So it’s appropriate that a director steeped in Italian neo-realism, film noir and other styles would expose his “Shutter Island” cast and crew to films of the past:

“Laura”: Scorsese showed this Otto Preminger-directed noir from 1944 to Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, who play federal marshals. “It was the nature of Dana Andrews’ behavior, his body language, and then his falling in love with a ghost,” Scorsese says of the actor, who plays a police detective investigating a murder. “He doesn’t look at anybody -- he’s not going to be taken in by any of these witnesses.”

FOR THE RECORD:
‘Let There Be Light’: An article in Sunday’s Calendar quoted director Martin Scorsese saying that the World War II documentary “Let There Be Light,” commissioned by the U.S. Army, “was banned. I don’t think that ban has ever been lifted.” The film was declassified in 1980. —

“Out of the Past”: Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 noir is a movie full of flashbacks and reversals. “The element of ‘Out of the Past’ to me is a film that’s always a mystery, a web that’s being woven. A net. These are characters who are doomed from the beginning, in an emotional and intellectual labyrinth.”

“Cat People”: Scorsese showed the crew this 1942 horror film also directed by Tourneur, and associated with producer Val Lewton. “I can’t tell the structure -- it’s so dreamlike, the essence of mystery. . . . The dream state was what we were trying to get at, trying to reach in ‘Shutter Island.’ ”

“Isle of the Dead”: A 1945 horror film produced by Lewton. “There’s the buildup to a scene where someone is buried prematurely. Just psychologically, what it did to me. . . . I had to leave the theater. I went back a week later and had to leave the theater at the same point. That is a mood!”

“The Trial:” Orson Welles’ 1962 Kafka adaptation: “When I was doing the film I was reading a lot of Kafka, a lot of the short stories -- they’re wonderful. I think Welles really captured that spirit. I remember ‘The Trial’ from when it opened. But it’s a matter of visuals -- labyrinths and hallways. And a sense of everybody knows more than you do, you don’t know exactly what’s going on, and your life depends on it.”

“Let There Be Light” and “The Battle of San Pietro”: Short documentaries commissioned by the U.S. Army and made by John Huston in the mid-’40s. “ ‘Let There Be Light’ is a short film about soldiers with shell shock, interviewed by doctors. It was banned; I don’t think the ban has ever quite been lifted.”

calendar@latimes.com