World renowned film director Martin Scorsese recently spoke at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco, and according to Slash Film and other sources, Scorsese is quoted as insisting that he’s only got a few films left before he can no longer work. At the age of 71, it’s clear Scorsese is very down to Earth about his age and the amount of time it takes to make a film, but many fans (myself included) are hoping his talk of retirement is nothing more than a case of: thinking out loud.

“I have the desire to make many films” Scorsese says, “but as of now I’m 71 and there’s only a couple more left if I get to make them. I miss the time when I had the desire to experiment and try different kinds of films, I miss that time, but that’s done, it’s over.”

Film journalists who have covered this interview have gone on about how Scorsese may have been on his way out earlier if it weren’t for his collaborations with Di Caprio, which began with 2002’s Gangs of New York and continued with films: The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and most recently The Wolf Of Wall Street.

“De Niro introduced me to Leo,” says Scorsese, “and I found that Leo liked the movies we made in the past and he has the same sensibilities, similar interests. He has great courage and a fearlessness in the work. He’s not afraid to go to certain emotional places… he regenerated my enthusiasm for making films.”

Scorsese reflected a bit on his long time collaborator Robert De Niro, saying:

“The reality is De Niro, in 1959 or 1960, he was in the neighborhood, the streets that I was on. We knew each other. We weren’t friends then, but he’s the only one alive working in cinema, in this business, who knows who I am and where I come from. That’s it. He’ll just look at me and… We know. Now, we’re older, much older. We were able to work together on a series of films where we mined some very deep emotions and psychological issues. It wasn’t always pleasant. It was all based on trust. There was no pretension in him in that way because we dealt with what we knew, we were attracted to the same stories, the same characters, the same risks.”

You can catch Scorsese’s latest film THE WOLF OF WALL STREET when it hits theaters this Christmas.

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