The Heiress was a point of reference for Leo DiCaprio’s character on Killers of the Flower Moon, reveals Martin Scorsese on new Letterboxd account

Film preservation advocate, filmmaker, and the ultimate authority on all things cinema, Martin Scorsese has finally joined Letterboxd. It is a film-oriented social media app, that allows people to track the films they watch as well as make lists to showcase them. One may think of it as a promotional strategy on the octagenarian director’s part, for his new film Killers of the Flower Moon, however, the act is a boon in disguise for film lovers across the globe.

In his introduction to the list of companion films, Scorsese writes, “ I love the idea of putting different films together into one program. I grew up seeing double features, programs in repertory houses, evenings of avant-garde films in storefront theatres. You always learn something, see something in a new light, because every movie is in conversation with every other movie. The greater the difference between the pictures, the better.”

Further, in classic genius style, for every Scorsese film, its relationship with its companion film[s] has been lucidly elaborated by Martin himself. According to the legendary filmmaker, The Heiress (1949) was crucial “for the relationship between Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift, which was a reference point for Leo DiCaprio,” as well as co-artist Lily Gladstone, and Scorsese himself.

Personally, for Martin, The Heiress offers more companionship than the other films for his latest release. It not only inspires shooting the American past the William Wyler way, “all that wealth, all those fine possessions and exquisite manners, become a prison house,” but also reveals the “absolute emotional brutality” of the 1940s New York elite social scenario.