He’s talkin’ to us. And, as the Tribeca Festival’s three-day De Niro Con proved, we’re still listening.
More than 50 years after Robert De Niro made his movie debut, his career continues to go strong, with a new film, Ezra, in theaters, plus four more in various stages of production. His commercial influence on Lower Manhattan is undeniable, spanning restaurants, a hotel, and the Tribeca Fest itself, which he cofounded back in 2002.
Not everyone’s a fan—Donald Trump, for example, has referred to the outspoken Democrat as a “Wacko Former Actor.” But not surprisingly, the attendees at De Niro Con disagreed.
The celebration, which began on June 14 and concluded two days later, wasn’t De Niro’s idea, but the brainchild of Tribeca Festival cofounder Jane Rosenthal. “And if it’s not good and he doesn’t like it, you won’t be seeing me here anymore,” she joked before it opened. Rosenthal shouldn’t have worried. Like the man himself, the event contained multitudes—including some low-brow fun. As it should have.
Sure, this is the man whose literal, physical transformation in Raging Bull forever changed screen acting (much to the discomfort of every Oscar-hungry actor since, from Christian Bale to Zac Efron). But he’s also the guy who starred in that Rocky and Bullwinkle movie. Joe Pesci might not be here to amuse us, but De Niro knows it’s part of the job.
So events included fan-friendly activities like “T=he De Niro Hero: Sandwich Tasting & Competition”; “De Niro Is an Icon,” a mini exhibit featuring pop-culture relics like the hack license he got before starting Taxi Driver; and “The Rupert Pupkin Hall of Fan Experiences,” providing interactive fun including, in honor of the actor’s illustrated physique in Cape Fear, a working tattoo parlor. (Temp versions were available for the commitment-shy.)
The liveliest, if briefest, presentation was a 15-minute immersive film called De Niro, New York, shown in the ISM Hexadome—basically an empty room ringed by six large screens and speakers blasting a 52-channel soundtrack. Clips from more than three dozen of the actor’s films played simultaneously—initially out of context, but eventually weaving together in a chronology that illustrated his growth as a man, an artist, and a public figure.
It was both fascinating and overwhelming—like being stuck inside a hall of mirrors where every reflection was De Niro’s.
Easier to digest were the screenings of 13 of the actor’s films, most with a celebrity host or post-movie Q&A. The Deer Hunter came with an introduction. By. Christopher. Walken. Analyze This featured a chat between De Niro and costar Billy Crystal. “He is one of my closest friends,” Crystal said before the festival. “Working with him was one of the great experiences of my career.”
The best screenings featured different sides of both the star and his audience.
At Jackie Brown, the crowd—swelling with Quentin Tarantino fans—was younger, edgier. Inside the SVA Theatre, viewers cheered as soon as Tarantino’s credit hit the screen but were soon wrapped up in the director’s loving, two-and-a-half-hour salute to ’70s blaxploitation, the goddess Pam Grier, and Bridget Fonda’s toes. De Niro’s surprisingly comic performance, as a not-too-bright stoner, drew regular, knowing laughs.
In typical fashion, the star wasn’t too talkative afterward, even with the ever-antic Tarantino trying to draw him out with leading questions about unhappy sets or unsympathetic directors. Insisting he tried to avoid conflict, De Niro admitted there was one production on which he and the director clashed: Bogart Slept Here, helmed by Mike Nichols at the time. (The film was later rewritten, recast, and retitled The Goodbye Girl.) The actor left the project after about two weeks on set.
“I’ve had maybe three times in my life that I’ve ever had that experience with a director,” De Niro admitted. “You can’t make them happy, and they’re not happy, and you’re kind of feeling that.”
As an illustration of what happens when director and star click, there was Mean Streets, the first product of De Niro’s partnership with Martin Scorsese. At the Beacon Theatre, it drew an older, more serious crowd than did Jackie Brown; fewer film bros and jokey T-shirts, more couples and gray hair. John Turturro and Steve Buscemi slipped into the audience early, just two more lifelong fans.
“Oh my God, oh my God!” Turturro exclaimed after Rosenthal introduced the film by noting it was 50 years old. “Please don’t say 50!”
But the movie held up beautifully, as did its director and star, who were interviewed afterward by Nas. It wasn’t quite clear why the musician was handling those duties; he kept referring to the movie as Scorsese’s first (it was his third feature) and greeted most of his guests’ answers with a single, wondering “Wow.”
It didn’t matter. After nearly a lifetime together, the two men have an easy rhythm. Scorsese, unsurprisingly, took the lead, giving long answers that name-dropped artists ranging from John Cassavetes to Pieter Bruegel. De Niro fell back on his usual winces and monosyllables. But a portrait still emerged of two young men, growing up a few blocks apart, in a neighborhood where violence was casual and friendship was everything.
“We were mired in a world which I think was very primal,” Scorsese said of their youth, “and had to do with blood and trust and loyalty.”
Eventually, escape routes opened up. Scorsese discovered a new world a few blocks away, at NYU. De Niro began taking acting classes. Years later, they reconnected at a Christmas party. (“He said, ‘Hey, you used to hang with so-and-so,’” Scorsese remembered. “‘I’m Bobby, from Kenmare and Grand.’”) And soon began a partnership that would include 10 films (and counting).
Oscars would follow, and De Niro would go on to work with Tarantino and Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci. He’d do all the other work that made De Niro Con not just possible, but necessary. Still, Nas asked if, at this point, there were any regrets. A role out there he wishes he’d gotten the chance to play, perhaps?
“I feel I’ve been lucky,” De Niro said. “I’ve done okay.”
No one in the audience disagreed.
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