Review of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) by Sumanjit R — 09 Aug 2012

Scorsese's pitch-perfect perception of a standard American film. It's story is simple, if almost any other director were to handle this film, it wouldn't have turned out as rich and effective as it is now.

It starts out , presenting itself as a standard dysfunctional couple with a child. The matter of events that occur, causing Alice to become a widow, and how powerfully Scorsese presented it, shows how serious this film has become.

As small glimpses of hope arise throughout, their lives begin to get increasingly more cluttered, and the tension builds up. About an hour and a half in, is when everything it has worked toward had caught up to Alice, and it takes a small chain of bad events to show what great life has been presented to them all along.

While it isn't surprising that Scorsese has made a precise and perfectly paced film, it does show how well his isms expand in any sort of film, or how far he can expand his horizons. This film is rather colorful, and full of style, a lot of which that was used in his previous masterpiece "Mean Streets".

The occasional camerawork where it feels like someone is walking around with the camera, which really puts you in the moment. There is much value in the composition, emotions, and character study of the film.

That's why this film is Scorsese's attempt at mastering a simple American love story, which he has most certainly done and made more plentiful than I would've imagined (And Scorsese is in my top 5 directors).