movie theaters

With His Netflix Check (Hopefully) Cashed, Martin Scorsese Reminds Us That Watching a Movie in Theaters Is Best

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Netflix has signed on to bankroll Martin Scorsese’s next collaboration with Robert De Niro, but that doesn’t mean the director has totally bought into the streaming experience. “Now you can see a film on an iPad,” Scorsese said at a BFI event in London. “You might be able to push it closer to your [face] in your bedroom, just lock the door and look at it if you can, but I do find just glimpsing stuff here or there, even watching a film at home on a big-screen TV, there is still stuff around the room. There’s a phone that rings. People go by. It is not the best way.” Netflix hasn’t detailed how it will release The Irishman — simultaneously in theaters and online like Ava DuVernay’s 13th? — but the legendary cinephile prescribes a theater for the ultimate moviegoing experience: “The problem now is that it is everything around the frame that is distracting,” Scorsese said. More than slamming the streaming site, Scorsese’s comments remind what a big get The Irishman is for Netflix: Even the biggest proponent of movie theaters appreciates the streaming’s novelty and, of course, cash.

Martin Scorsese Decries Streaming After Signing Netflix Deal