Martin Scorsese has championed Ari Aster’s films for years–he famously namechecked the Hereditary director in his controversial New York Times op-ed about his issues with the surge of superhero movies, and in 2020 wrote an introduction for the Midsommar collector’s edition, praising Aster’s technical talents and understanding of filmmaking. (“Here was a young filmmaker that obviously knew cinema. The formal control, the precision of the framing and the movement within the frame, the pacing of the action, the sound — it was all there, immediately evident,” he wrote.)
So it’s only right that the legendary filmmaker spoke to Aster about his wild, intensely debated latest film, Beau is Afraid. Though responses to the audacious new movie vary widely, Scorsese praised the director’s boldness in their 25-minute conversation.
At the Q+A, the Hollywood veteran dubbed Aster “one of the most extraordinary new voices in world cinema.” Scorsese saluted Aster for subverting the traditional three-act structure, and likened the polarizing response to Beau to a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon that he saw in 1976. That film received Academy Award nominations, but viewers had a decidedly mixed reaction at the time, though there has been positive reappraisal in the decades since its release.
“For me, I think about what you’re doing in terms of structure here,” Scorsese said. “I get excited by seeing different ways of approaching the structure of telling a story.”
In his praise of Beau, Scorsese highlighted the production design during the film’s animated sequence, which saw him work with Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, the genuine unprecedented quality of the narrative, and Aster’s work with the ensemble cast. Aster was clearly moved by the moment, saying, “It’s very surreal to have you talk to me about a film like this. You’re my hero and I want to cry.”