Italianamerican (1974)

Martin Scorsese made Italianamerican in 1974, at a point in his career when he was still very much establishing himself as a feature filmmaker. It was commissioned by the National Communications Foundation as part of a series about American ethnic groups, which makes its personal, almost accidental quality all the more striking. At under fifty minutes, it sits somewhere between short film and full documentary, and it arrived sandwiched between two of his more well-known early works, which gives it an interesting, slightly odd place in his filmography. For anyone who has followed his career through films like Taxi Driver or The King of Comedy, this one offers something those films can only hint at: a direct, unmediated look at the household and the family culture that informed so much of what came after.

The production is about as stripped back as it gets. There is no studio apparatus to speak of, no location shooting beyond the family apartment on Elizabeth Street in lower Manhattan, and no crew to speak of in the traditional sense. Scorsese himself appears on camera alongside his parents, Catherine and Charles Scorsese, both of them first-generation Italian-Americans who grew up in and around the Little Italy neighbourhood that would become the spiritual home of so many of their son's preoccupations. Catherine Scorsese, in particular, was not a complete stranger to her son's films even by this point, and anyone who has seen her cameo work in later Scorsese pictures will find her here in her natural habitat, so to speak. Charles, for his part, appears in the film as a quieter, more measured presence, a good-humoured foil to his wife's more expressive energy. As a documentary, it belongs to a particular tradition of personal, low-intervention filmmaking that was gaining traction in the early 1970s, though it wears that tradition lightly rather than making any great show of it.

Documentaries of this kind, built around conversation and memory rather than event or argument, are a genuinely tricky proposition to pull off, and it is worth keeping that context in mind going in. Unlike other documentaries from the same era that pursued a clear social or political thesis, this one is content to sit in the room and listen. Whether that restraint reads as a virtue or a limitation is very much a matter of taste. If you are curious how this approach compares with other documentary work from the period, it is worth having a look at the site's coverage of A River Called Titas or, for something more recent to set alongside it, the review of Next Goal Wins.

Italianamerican (1974) is less a traditional documentary and more a warm, unvarnished home movie elevated by Martin Scorsese’s affection for his parents. Filmed in their modest New York apartment, the film consists almost entirely of Scorsese interviewing his mother, Catherine, and father, Charles (two first-generation Italian-American immigrants) as they recount their upbringing, values, food habits, and memories of life in Little Italy. There’s no narration, no archival footage, no grand thesis, just two elderly people talking over coffee and pasta, with all the digressions, jokes, and gentle bickering that entails. Catherine Scorsese is, an absolute character: sharp-witted, expressive, and utterly herself. Anyone who’s seen her cameos in Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, or Casino will recognise her instantly, not because she’s “acting,” but because those roles were essentially extensions of her real personality. Here, she dominates the screen with charm and candour, whether debating tomato sauce recipes or recalling childhood hardships. Charles, quieter but equally grounded, offers a stoic counterbalance. Together, they embody a vanishing working-class immigrant ethos, proud, pragmatic, and deeply family-oriented. Yet for all its intimacy, Italianamerican doesn’t aim for depth, critique, or even structure. It’s comforting, yes (like eavesdropping on beloved relatives) but it rarely transcends its modest scope. As a historical snapshot or cultural document, it’s valuable; as cinema, it’s slight. There’s little cinematic craft beyond basic framing, and the 50-minute runtime feels breezy. Italianamerican isn’t good or bad, it simply is. A tender, unpretentious portrait that’s more personal memento than polished film. For Scorsese fans, it’s a fascinating glimpse into the roots of his worldview; for others, it may feel too insular to fully engage. But in its quiet way, it captures something enduring: the love, laughter, and lasagna that shaped one of cinema’s great voices.

What stays with me, having sat with the film for a while, is exactly that tension between affection and ambition, or rather the deliberate absence of the latter. I find myself returning to Catherine more than anything else, that sheer unperformable quality she has on screen. You cannot manufacture that, and I suspect Scorsese knew it, which is why he mostly just pointed a camera and let her run. It is not the kind of film I would reach for on a Friday night, but there is something honest about it that I respect. Sometimes a film does not need to be more than it is, and this one seems entirely at peace with its own smallness. A family dinner you were not quite invited to, but glad you overheard.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1974  | Watched: 2026-05-12

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Martin Scorsese: The King of Comedy (1982) · Gangs of New York (2002) · Cape Fear (1991) · Taxi Driver (1976)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Punishment Park (1971) · The Last Picture Show (1971)
More documentary: Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Style Wars (1983) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)