Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Italianamerican: Gender, Ethnicity, and Imagination

The most immediately striking aspect of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Italianamerican is that they are the only two films directed by Scorsese that focus primarily on women. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore offers an exception to Scorsese’s preoccupation with men in that it was packaged by a major female star, Ellen Burstyn, who chose the story because of its emphasis on a woman’s experience. Scorsese acknowledged that the resulting change to an ending in which David and Alice remain together was a major factor in feminists dismissing the film: It was not for feminists. When Alice and Tommy stop in Phoenix on the way to Tucson, Ben approaches her at the club where she is singing, and, not knowing that he is married, she begins a relationship with him. Catherine Scorsese makes a brief cameo appearance in GoodFellas, in a scene that uses a documentary-like style to recall her storytelling performance from Italianamerican.