Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Authors Like
By Lisanne Swart · 6 authors · Cinema & Storytelling · Updated July 2026
Martin Scorsese's writing on cinema, whether in interviews, essays, or his documentary work, treats film history as a living inheritance to be studied, argued with, and passed forward rather than simply admired. His obsession with craft, moral consequence, and the specific texture of a scene comes through as clearly on the page as on screen. The writers below share his combination of encyclopedic film knowledge and genuine, unfashionable seriousness about what cinema is actually capable of.
Readers who enjoy Martin Scorsese often turn to Quentin Tarantino for a similarly obsessive, encyclopedic love of film history, Werner Herzog for philosophical seriousness about what cinema can capture, Roger Ebert for the critic's-eye perspective on the same body of work Scorsese draws from, Ingmar Bergman for the psychological and spiritual intensity Scorsese has cited as a direct influence, Akira Kurosawa for the visual storytelling craft that shaped Scorsese's own technique, and Francis Ford Coppola for a contemporary and collaborator working similarly ambitious, morally serious American cinema.
Similar Voice & Approach
Quentin Tarantino
Tarantino shares Scorsese's encyclopedic, almost obsessive knowledge of film history, and Cinema Speculation reads as a direct extension of the kind of passionate, detail-rich film criticism Scorsese himself has produced in interviews and documentaries, treating specific films from the 1970s with the same reverence and argumentative energy.
Read Tarantino for Scorsese's encyclopedic film obsession rendered as direct, opinionated written criticism. Cinema Speculation is the essential entry point.
Werner Herzog
Herzog shares Scorsese's conviction that cinema is capable of capturing something close to spiritual or philosophical truth, though his sensibility runs toward the mythic and the extreme where Scorsese's stays closer to moral consequence within recognizable human society.
Read Herzog for a more mythic, philosophically extreme version of Scorsese's seriousness about cinema's capabilities. A Guide for the Perplexed is essential.
Roger Ebert
Ebert brought the same seriousness and encyclopedic range to film criticism that Scorsese brings to filmmaking, and his memoir Life Itself covers much of the same American film history Scorsese has spent his career referencing, restoring, and championing.
Read Ebert for the critic's perspective on the same body of film history Scorsese draws from as a director. The Great Movies is an essential companion.
Ingmar Bergman
Bergman is one of Scorsese's most explicitly cited influences, and his autobiography The Magic Lantern shares Scorsese's own preoccupation with guilt, faith, and psychological intensity rendered with total formal control, a combination that runs directly through much of Scorsese's own filmography.
Read Bergman for the psychological and spiritual intensity Scorsese has directly credited as foundational to his own work. The Magic Lantern is essential.
Akira Kurosawa
Kurosawa's visual storytelling craft and use of composition to carry moral weight directly shaped Scorsese's own technique, and Scorsese has spoken and written extensively about Kurosawa's influence on his approach to camera movement and framing.
Read Kurosawa for the visual storytelling foundation Scorsese has built much of his own technique on. Something Like an Autobiography is the essential entry point.
Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola, Scorsese's contemporary and occasional collaborator, shares his ambition and moral seriousness about American cinema, both directors emerging from the same 1970s New Hollywood movement that reshaped what mainstream American film could attempt.
Read Coppola for a close contemporary working similarly ambitious, morally serious American cinema in the same historical movement as Scorsese.
More from the shelf
Frequently asked questions about authors like Martin Scorsese
Who should I read if I like Martin Scorsese?
Readers who enjoy Martin Scorsese often turn to Quentin Tarantino for a similarly obsessive, encyclopedic love of film history, Werner Herzog for philosophical seriousness about what cinema can capture, Roger Ebert for the critic's-eye perspective on the same body of work Scorsese draws from, Ingmar Bergman for the psychological and spiritual intensity Scorsese has cited as a direct influence, Akira Kurosawa for the visual storytelling craft that shaped Scorsese's own technique, and Francis Ford Coppola for a contemporary and collaborator working similarly ambitious, morally serious American cinema.
Did Ingmar Bergman influence Martin Scorsese?
Yes, Bergman is one of Scorsese's most explicitly cited influences. Scorsese has spoken extensively about how Bergman's combination of guilt, faith, and psychological intensity rendered with total formal control shaped his own approach to character and moral consequence throughout his filmography.
What should I read after watching Scorsese's films?
Quentin Tarantino's Cinema Speculation offers the same encyclopedic film obsession rendered as direct written criticism. Roger Ebert's The Great Movies covers much of the same film history Scorsese references throughout his career. For the visual storytelling foundation behind Scorsese's technique, Akira Kurosawa's Something Like an Autobiography is essential.
Is Quentin Tarantino similar to Martin Scorsese?
Both share an encyclopedic, almost obsessive knowledge of film history and a habit of referencing and reworking earlier cinema in their own work. Tarantino's book Cinema Speculation reads as a direct extension of the kind of passionate, detail-rich film criticism and reverence for specific films that Scorsese himself has expressed in interviews and documentary work.
