Martin Scorsese: 'Please don't watch The Irishman on a phone'

Martin Scorsese has pleaded with viewers to avoid watching The Irishman on their mobile phones.

The Goodfellas director's three-and-a-half-hour gangster epic, which stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino, became available to stream on Netflix last week, with subscribers being able to watch the film in all manner of ways - from their TV sets to their computer, tablet or phones.

However, when speaking to film critic Peter Travers on his YouTube show, Popcorn with Peter Travers, Scorsese made it clear that he didn't want viewers to consume his movie via their phones.

"I would suggest - if you ever want to see one of my pictures, or most films - please, please don't look at it on a phone, please. An iPad, a big iPad, maybe," he said, adding that wouldn't know how to make a movie specifically for phones. "I don't know how to do it. I wish I could, I don't know how. No, I don't get it."

The 77-year-old also hopes viewers will watch the film from start to finish in one sitting without distractions, with him insisting that The Irishman is capable of pulling in and sustaining people's attention despite its lengthy runtime.

"It was an interesting narrative structure, and it got me involved each time. In a funny way, I think I made it to cover all the bases in terms of how you could watch this picture," the filmmaker continued. "Ideally, I'd like you to go to a theatre, look at it on a big screen from beginning to end. And I know, it's long - you gotta get up, you gotta go to the bathroom, that sort of thing, I get it - but also at home, I think if you can make a night of it, or an afternoon thereof, and know that you're not gonna answer the phone or you're not gonna get up too much, it might work."