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'The Age of Innocence' feels more like a Scorsese film with each passing year

The Age of Innocence, new to the Criterion Collection, is a sensuous chronicle of tribalism, always a Scorsese specialty.

The Age of Innocence is often viewed as an outlier in the Martin Scorsese catalog, and it's not hard to see why. The lace curtains and upper-crust concerns of New York's 19th-century elite are a far cry from the tormented tough guys that fill Mean Streets and other Scorsese films. But that distinction feels more fallible with every passing year. The Age of Innocence, released in 1993 and new to the Criterion Collection, is a sensuous chronicle of tribalism, always a Scorsese specialty. In bringing Edith Wharton's 1920 novel to the screen, Scorsese dissects the obscenely rich with the same scalpel-like precision he brings to his criminals and hoods. In subsequent years he's demonstrated his subject range with films as diverse as Kundun, The Aviator and Silence. All have the divine tracking shots and obsessive craft level that define a Scorsese film more than bullets or blood ever could.