You saw a bum falling asleep and somebody stealing his shoes, his clothes. All that music was always playing through my neighbourhood, so every time I saw, say, a Holy Communion procession, there was an Italian band playing a religious song. Then, as they go past a building, opera is playing out of a third-floor window. Then a jukebox is playing down the road. Everywhere there's music playing.
Life has a music score.
So, when I was working on this film and riding in those ambulances, that's how it hit me. Scorsese is already planning his next feature. His long-cherished plans to make movies about Dean Martin and the Rat Pack and about George Gershwin must continue to take a back seat while he pursues another pet project, Gangs of New York, which gets to the roots of the culture clashes he discussed earlier. He becomes effusive at the mention of the movie, settling down to a short history lesson. The Irish came in.