Tony Zhou pieces together a primer on how Martin Scorsese, famous for his use of music in films, applies silence to equally great effect:
Back in 2008, Roger Ebert highlighted Scorsese’s use of rock music in his book on the director:
Of all directors of his generation and younger, he may make the best use of rock music in his films. His first film was scored with rock records, he was a supervising editor on Woodstock, he has done documentaries on The Band and Bob Dylan, and was working in late 2007 on a Rolling Stones concert tour. He uses period music for New York, New York or The Aviator, and he evokes a time period with Dean Martin (who he once planned to make a film about), but you sense that he edits with rock in mind; it is worth remembering that he met his longest-serving collaborator, the great editor Thelma Schoonmaker, on Who’s That Knocking, and worked on Woodstock with her. Michael Wadleigh, one of the cinematographers on Knocking, became the director of Woodstock. I remember sitting next to them on the floor of a New York loft and watching takes of that film while they were both vibrating like fans at a concert.
(Hat tip: kottke)