Martin Scorsese admits that he has not seen Joker yet. Scorsese of course made major waves last year when he leveled harsh criticism at comic book films and specifically Marvel movies, which he claimed are not cinema. A legendary director thanks to classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, Scorsese is currently garnering major Oscar buzz for his epic film The Irishman, which runs for over three hours and utilizes state-of-the-art CGI technology to de-age many of its actors.

But despite The Irishman garnering critical praise while bringing together legendary actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, seemingly all anyone wanted to talk about last year was Scorsese’s remarks about Marvel movies not being cinema. Interestingly, Scorsese himself was at one time almost involved in another comic book movie, Joker, before ultimately walking away from the production. Todd Phillips would go on to write and direct Joker, and Scorsese would later indicate that unlike other comic book movies, he does consider Joker to be cinema.

However, Scorsese has now admitted that he in fact has not seen Joker, a film that he previously considered making and that is laden with references to his own prior works. Speaking to the New York Times, Scorsese said, “I saw clips of it. I know it. So it’s like, why do I need to? I get it. It’s fine.”

Scorsese’s new remarks serve as something of a clarification of his earlier statements, in which he talked about Joker’s energy and praised lead actor Joaquin Phoenix:

Scorsese’s new admission that he hasn’t seen Joker but only knows it and gets it is in fact somewhat amusing as last year amid the blowback against the director’s Marvel remarks, Disney chief Bob Iger cracked “I don’t think he’s ever seen a Marvel film.” Of course, in addition to being a great director, Scorsese is something of a film historian who talks passionately and with great knowledge about films from many eras. However, it doesn’t seem that Scorsese keeps up with today’s movies as avidly as he devoured the films of prior decades. Scorsese naturally has a lot on his plate and therefore probably legitimately doesn’t have time to see very many of today’s movies, but one could argue that if he doesn’t have time to see the movies, perhaps he should stop publicly criticizing them.

“I know the film very well. I know [director Todd Phillips] very well. My producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff produced it. I thought about it a lot over the last four years and decided I did not have the time for it. It was personal reasons why I didn’t get involved. But I know the script very well. It has a real energy and Joaquin. You have remarkable work.”

Then again, Scorsese’s criticism of Marvel is not only about their cinematic merit, but is also more legitimately about how the whole blockbuster approach to movies has made it harder for directors to get financing for mid-budget films that appeal to a more adult audience. Indeed, Scorsese tried for years to get The Irishman made at the studios before finally going to Netflix, who were willing to pay for the expensive de-aging technology that made the movie possible. So for Scorsese, the issue of comic book movies dominating the business is really as much about economics as art. The fact that he indeed considered working on Joker is proof that even the greats sometimes are tempted to succumb to those money-related realities and slum on a comic book film, though of course ultimately Scorsese backed away and worked on a more personal project in The Irishman.

More: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman Couldn’t Exist Without The MCU

Source: The New York Times

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