Martin Scorsese has always had an enigmatic relationship with the Catholic Church. In the past, the rightly revered director has described himself as a “lapsed Catholic”, but during the rounds of publicity for this latest film, he admitted that his “way” has always been Catholic. He could hardly deny it: the evidence has stared back at us from the big screen for decades. Scorsese’s films are clearly the work of a man both at odds with and in awe of the Church. Grand Catholic themes of grace and sin, guilt and confession, underpin many of his masterworks, including Raging Bull, Mean Streets and Goodfellas. He has tackled Christianity overtly too, with his deliberately provocative The Last Temptation of Christ. Now, in Silence (Cert 15, 159 mins), he’s dealing with Catholicism head on once more.