Songs of Scorsese

(a piece of film criticism as poetry)

referring to Goodfellas

The songs of a Scorsese film are just
as much the art as all that’s else.
He is the poet laureate of cinema,
a turning of the phrase in each little song
that he selects. Director of blank verse.

Who else could make a gangster film
and fill it with such love that even violence
becomes a shining lighthouse in the dark?
“And Then He Kissed Me” plays as Ray Liotta walks
with Mrs Hill through backdoors into luxury.

“Atlantis” plays as he’s forced to witness
an old man’s face be kicked and punched to Catholic grace...

One is the dance of sex and love revered
in God’s houses. The other song tells of
the city in the Grecian sea, to which all three
conspirators will sink - De Niro, Pesci, Henry Hill.
Actors merge with fictive personalities.
The Greek chorus of pop music displays just how they work.