There’s a sad moment in Rebecca Miller’s recent documentary portrait of Martin Scorsese, simply titled Mr Scorsese, in which his middle child, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, describes what it was like to feature in a small role in his 1993 film, The Age of Innocence. The director’s been open about where he’s failed as a father, and has since tried to make amends (and be more present, too, in the life of his youngest, Francesca – hence the TikTok cameos).
But that wasn’t quite the case for all of Domenica’s childhood. And you can sense the tiny thunderclap of grief that passes across her features when she describes the kind of love and attention she witnessed that day – not as a daughter, but as an actor. She remarks, “if you’re not there in that sphere of light, you can feel its absence.”
