Martin and Francesca Scorsese Launch Family Film Series at Southampton Playhouse

Watching old movies as a family is a great way for different generations to bond — and many parents enjoy sharing their passion for favorite films with their offspring.

But now imagine your father is director Martin Scorsese. What sort of a film education do you think you might get?

Chances are, it would be thorough, eclectic and totally fascinating.

That’s certainly the case for 25-year-old Francesca Scorsese who grew up on a steady diet of monumental and not-so-monumental films — anything her father found important, historic, forgotten or just a whole lot of fun.

Today, Francesca is an actress, filmmaker and TikTok creator. But in a recent phone interview, she shared memories of the movies she watched with her legendary filmmaker father. And unlike those children who resist their parents’ efforts to expose them to old movies they love, Francesca recalls having no such hesitation as a youngster.

“I looked forward to doing it,” she said of weekends spent watching films with her dad. “He made sure that the films were for my age range. My earliest memories are animation and Technicolor prints of things. He’s shown me so many films, a lot of them blend together. I’ll remember things like a color from one of these films, or a specific actor, or one instance that shocked me that I enjoyed.

“A lot of times I have to bring it up to him in a vague way. ‘Remember that guy who did this thing in that film?’ and he’s like ‘What film?’”

What film indeed. Beginning on August 14, the Southampton Playhouse kicks off “The Scorsese Family Experience,” a year-round series of family-oriented films that are personal favorites of Martin and Francesca Scorsese. Working with the playhouse’s artistic director Eric Kohn, an adjunct professor at the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at New York University (both Francesca and Martin Scorsese are alums of NYU), the Scorseses are selecting some of their favorite father/daughter films to be screened at the Southampton Playhouse.

“This is someone who is incredibly generous in lending his time and name to film institutions,” Kohn said of Martin Scorsese. “Not only does he represent a certain high bar for world-class cinema, but he’s been an advocate for cinema throughout his career.”

That advocacy includes The Film Foundation, the nonprofit organization Scorsese established in 1990 to protect and preserve motion picture history, both in this country and around the world, including at the annual “Festival of Preservation” at the Sag Harbor Cinema.

“His impact is formidable,” Kohn said. “The way he has lent his name and the authority he brings to film culture is quite singular and really admirable.”

When Kohn first set out to create this series, he did so with a single and seemingly simple question.

“My starting point with Martin was, ‘Do you have a list of all the movies you showed Francesca when she was growing up?’” Kohn recalled. “It was a loaded question. I assumed the answer was ‘yes,’ but I wound up with 30 pages of films that he showed Francesca from age zero to last year.”

That’s a lot of cinema history to wade through; Kohn notes that for the opening week of “The Scorsese Family Experience,” the movies to be screened will appeal to a wide range of ages — from Charlie Chaplin’s “A Dog’s Life” (1918), “The Red Balloon” (1956) and “The Thief of Baghdad” (1940) for viewers as young as 5, to “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) in IMAX 3D for slightly older kids ready for that level of experience, the 1967 French film “Playtime” for ages 10 and up, and, for teenagers, “Bicycle Thieves,” the classic 1948 Italian film.

“August is an introduction, but we want to bring these films back throughout the year,” Kohn explained. “The idea is you are constantly able to benefit from the relationship that Martin had with his daughter by bringing these films to your own family experience. These are films a lot of families can enjoy. Having access is important.

“I also wanted to use this opportunity to advance the larger goals of this institution and introduce the power of movies to the next generation of moviegoers,” Kohn added. “We’re doing that already with our junior series, which is aimed at younger viewers to get people comfortable with idea of going to movie theaters. But with this series, that journey goes much further. When you’re 10, 12, 15, movie going evolves into a different experience. It’s an opportunity to deepen the art form.

“In this first stage, we want to present the full spectrum of possibility for families. These films are an on-ramp to cinema.”

That was certainly true for Francesca. As she grew into adulthood, she realized that the weekend family tradition she had enjoyed with her father was turning into a serious education in cinema.

“I think it only clicked in when I got older. Watching movies was a way for me and Dad to bond,” she said. “When I went into the industry, I realized a lot of people haven’t seen the movies I’ve watched. Harry Potter was a huge deal when I was a kid. I never saw Harry Potter, but I’ve seen ‘Bringing Up Baby’ and ‘Leave Her to Heaven.’”

Just as Martin Scorsese has exposed Francesca to a wide range of films that inspired him throughout his long career, Francesca has been quite successful in getting her father interested in the way filmmaking is done in her generation.

“He’s shockingly open to social media,” Francesca said. “During COVID, NYU switched over the production classes, including my iPhone cinematography class. I thought, ‘What am I paying tuition for?’ I told my dad out of disgust. But he was like, ‘Actually….’ He used to yell at me if I watched movies on the computer or my phone. I didn’t want to tell him I watched ‘Shutter Island’ on the computer.

“Now that he sees VR stuff and AI, he thinks it’s useful for some things,” she added. “VR he’s particularly fascinated by. One of the things we were discussing was how it would be so cool to direct from home using a VR headset. You could transport yourself onto the set. My mom has Parkinson’s and could come to the set through VR.”

He may be open to more modern ways of filmmaking, but Francesca notes that in the world according to Martin Scorsese, there are some films that just have to be seen on the big screen.

“There were certain films where he said, ‘This needs to be an experience’ — like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ or ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’” Francesca said. “He would rent out a movie theater — the one at MoMI [Museum of the Moving Image] or the DGA theater — and literally bring me, my mom, one of my friends and one of his friends. We’d have the whole theater to ourselves. All those films are burned into my mind.

“For an occasional event, we’d go to see his films — it was really cool to see them with an audience,” Francesca added. “He also avoided showing me his films because he was shy. I saw ‘King Comedy’ in a theater and I met Jerry Lewis. Also, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Taxi Driver.’ But I was getting annoyed because everyone was anticipating what was coming and saying the lines the whole time. But I hadn’t seen it.”

Soon, Francesca and Martin Scorsese will be sharing their collective film viewing history with audiences in the form of a book that they are writing for A24.

“We’re literally going through each film that stood out to us,” she said. “It’s so impossible to narrow the list down. It’s been 25 years’ worth of multiple films every weekend. If you bring up this one, you have to bring up that one. Then there are the special ones we’ve seen over and over.”

And many of their favorites will be shown in the weeks and months ahead at the Southampton Playhouse. To that end, in conjunction with the Scorsese family screenings, this month Kohn will launch a new weekly podcast that will feature discussions and live Q&A recordings from the theater. Titled “Movie People: Interviews & More from the Southampton Playhouse,” the first guests on the podcast will be Martin and Francesca Scorsese.

“I’m kicking off with a 45-minute conversation with the two of them,” Kohn said. “We’ll talk about Scorsese’s own exposure to film starting with movies on TV. As he got older, in the 1960s he had access to these amazing art houses — the concept of the art house in America was from that decade.”

“Around the country there are a lot of old theaters like ours begging for renovation,” Kohn said. “Theaters still have relevance, and programming is part of that process. The more that sinks in, the more people will realize that small theaters are worth another shot.

“We’re showing big releases here and new films, but we want to make sure we’re acknowledging the past as well as the present.”

The Southampton Playhouse’s “Scorsese Presents: Family Films,” begins August 14, with a 7:30 p.m. screening of “Bicycle Thieves” (1948), followed on August 15 at 7 p.m. by “Playtime” (1967), August 16 at 1:30 p.m. “The Thief of Baghdad” (1940), August 16, at 5 p.m. “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) in IMAX 3D (additional screenings also scheduled), and on August 17, at 10:30 a.m., “The Red Balloon” (1956) and “A Dog’s Life” (1918). Southampton Playhouse is at 43 Jobs Lane in Southampton. For more information and tickets, visit southamptonplayhouse.com.