The Berlin Waltz: Scorsese, Stones Open Film Festival With Shine a Light

Who needs the Oscars when you have the Berlin Film Festival? Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones are in the German capital tonight to premiere their concert film, Shine a Light, shot at the Beacon Theater in 2006. The 65-year-old director, who does not have a film in this year's Oscar hunt, and the 64-year-old Mick Jagger appeared in high spirits on the red carpet. Scorsese, whose concert film resume includes The Last Waltz (1978) with the Band and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), told Reuters, "[The music of the Rolling Stones] became the basis for most of the work I've done in my movies going from Mean Streets on to Raging Bull all the way over to Casino and The Departed." To which Jagger joked that Shine a Light may be the only Scorsese film to not feature "Gimme Shelter." Zing!

Variety's Todd McCarthy got his review up early this afternoon, writing that Scorsese's "energetic account of a Stones concert at Gotham’s Beacon Theater" takes "full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of aging and the passage of time." Basically, Scorsese and the Stones can still rock, but boy do they look old!