HE FOUND fame as a great chronicler of life on the mean streets of New York where machismo rules and only the toughest survive.

But yesterday, renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese found himself in a cap and red gown being eulogised about in Latin as he took part in the centuries old Encaenia ceremony.

The great American filmmaker, whose career now spans five decades, added a honorary degree from Oxford University to his long list of Grammys, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

The university’s Orator, Jonathan Katz, said he was a ‘creative master’ and ‘true transformationist’ who has ‘created his own kind of poetry’ in moving pictures.

Still best known for his classics including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, Mr Scorsese was taking time out from making his latest film The Irishman with long-term collaborators Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.

Marching at the back of a long procession of academics, he waited outside the Sheldonian Theatre in Broad Street as the national anthem played before being ushered inside.

Oxford Mail:

Picture by John Cairns 

Alongside him were fellow degree recipients, the instantly recognisable classicist Mary Beard and the famous choreographer and founder of dance company New Adventures, Sir Matthew Bourne.

Lord Stern, the producer of a landmark review on the economics of climate change, judge David Neuberger, and social scientists Professor Helga Nowotny and Professor Robert Putnam completed the distinguished group.

Oxford Mail:

For Professor Beard, it was a chance to make amends for not attending her undergraduate degree ceremony.

She said: “I told my mum and dad that nobody did it anymore, which was a load of nonsense.

“I was terribly averse to what I thought then were posh rituals, but it would have been one of the best days of their lives and I do feel guilty for depriving them of that.

“As you grow up, you get to see the point of these ceremonies a bit more.

“Everybody thinks they are a bit silly and yet they are doing a job - they are bonding and celebratory.

“There is something about keeping your feet a bit in the past.”

The Cambridge historian added she was ‘secretly quite chuffed’ with herself to be given the accolade and now feels she has a foot in Oxford, despite the ‘light-hearted’ rivalry with her own institution.