Martin Scorsese's Divine Comedy

Catherine O'Brien is Co-director of the Centre for Marian Studies, UK, and was Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and French at Kingston University, UK. She is the author of The Celluloid Madonna (2011) and Women's Fictional Responses to the First World War (1997), and co-editor of Sacred Spaces/Forbidden Places (2000).

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart One. Inferno: Visions of Hell1. Hell on Earth2. Sympathy for the Devil3. TreacheryPart Two. Purgatory: The Three Story Mountain4. Misdirected love5. Insufficient love6. Excessive lovePart Three. Paradise: (Lost or Found?)7. Encountering Jesus8. The compassion connection9. The mystery of God’s loveConclusionBibliographyFilmographyIndex

O’Brien’s text is a welcome contribution and achieves a unique goal in the scholarship on Scorsese, as well as film and religion. This will be an indispensable text for scholars and admirers of Scorsese alike, and it is a case study in how focused religious interpretation of film should be done. One of the highest compliments that can be paid to the author is that the work not only sheds new light on and offers passionate, fresh interpretation of an abundantly studied filmmaker, but the text itself is as engrossing, provocative, and contemplative as the films that are the subject of its investigation. This is sure to be an essential text for course adoption, students, and even general readers, especially if a paperback edition ismade available.