Though Robert De Niro’s most recent headlines have not been film-related the passionate 80-year-old remains one of our greatest living actors and most one of the most colorful born and bred New Yorkers.
To celebrate his on screen accomplishments, this year’s Tribeca Film Festival—which takes place June 5 through June 16—has a special sub-program it’s calling “De Niro Con.” As the name implies, these events are all about the man who, with partners Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, co-founded the festival in 2002 to help with the post 9/11 revitalization of lower Manhattan.
Happily, the festival has been a triumph, and today encompasses not just film per se but tv, computer games and audio storytelling also. Another popular festival component, Talks, just that, with its Storytellers series consisting of public conversations between various creative figures, often in different fields. On June 12, for example, former R.E.M. singer and lyricist Michael Stipe will converse with comedian and actress, Janeane Garofolo, at the School of Visual Arts Theatre.
Though the official dates of “De Niro Con” are Friday June 14 through Sunday June 16, two related programs deserve highlighting.
First, running throughout the festival at Spring Studios on Varick Street, is “De Niro Is An Icon: An Exhibit & Immersive Film.” Combining a short six screen movie shown within a unique, multi-media structure called the Hexadome, and over 300 items from De Niro’s own and other archives.
Second, on June 13, is the world premiere of the film version of “A Bronx Tale, The Original One Man Show” written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. For fans of the superb 1993 movie A Bronx Tale—one of DeNiro’s only two directorial credits—that don’t also follow theater, the existence of such a show might sound crazy. In fact, it’s anything but—the stage play came first, and it was DeNiro seeing Palminteri’s performance that led directly to the movie. Aptly, Palminteri will be present for the premiere, offering both an introduction before and a Q&A afterwards.
Among the many notable programs on the De Niro Con schedule include:
June 14, 1 PM, School of Visual Arts: A 35 mm print of Jackie Brown (1997): Director Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to the brilliance and beauty of iconic “Blaxploitation” heroine, Pam Grier—unspools at the SVA Theatre, with a conversation between Tarantino and DeNiro following.
June 14, 4 PM, Indeed Theater, Spring Studios: This afternoon’s action is down at Varick Street for the gangster psychology comedy, Analyze This (1999), with co-stars De Niro and his Billy Crystal talking afterwards.
June 15, 2 PM, Beacon Theater: Arguably Martin Scorsese’s first masterpiece, this showing of 1973’s gritty, Little Italy-set crime movie Mean Streets at Beacon Theatre with a conversation between the director and De Niro, moderated by Nas, the Queens hip-hop legend and one of the genre’s premiere lyricists since he was a teenager.
June 15, 2 PM, Spring Studios: Going on at the same time as above, “The Missing Movies” discussion panel will talk about some of the “difficult or impossible to find” De Niro films, what this means for our film culture and our understanding culture in general. History does not belong only to whatever DVDs, BluRays or streaming options are, or are not, available at any given time. While the program note doesn’t specify which De Niro pictures will be discussed, one presumes the actor’s lesser known late 1960s and early 1970s pictures will feature prominently.
To that end, this reporter strongly recommends both Bloody Mama (1970), a deliriously twisted gangster family film set in Depression-era Arkansas, starring the ineffable Shelly Winters and directed by recently deceased independent movie hero Roger Corman, and The Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971), adapted from Jimmy Breslin’s mafia satire novel and largely set in Brooklyn. For fans of De Niro’s criminal roles, mother love (Bloody Mama) and ethnic comedy (Gang), both are essential—even revelatory viewing.
June 15, 4 pm, The Indeed Theater: Director Martin Scorsese’s lone musical, New York, New York (1977), will be introduced by actress Kathrine Narducci (A Bronx Tale, Sopranos) and actor and comedian, Mario Cantone.
June 15, 8 PM, The Indeed Theater: De Niro the film director other picture, Good Shepherd is an early history of the CIA, written by Eric Roth, and introduced by its costar, John Turturro.
June 16, Spring Studios, 12 PM: Reflecting both the subject’s cultural ubiquity and strong interest in food, there will be a “De Niro” sandwich competition, with area delis, bodegas, sandwich shops bringing their best De Niro-themed “sammies” to face judgement of the De Niro obsessed.
June 16, 1 PM, The Indeed Theater: Goodfellas (1990) is and likely always be among the great and most beloved of all movies, period, not just gangster flicks. Present for this screening will be the legendary Nicolas Pileggi, from whose book Wise Guy (about Lucchese-family associate turned rat, Henry Hill), the film was adapted. Interviewing the nonagenarian will be director Alfons Gomez-Rejon
June 16, 4:30 PM, The Indeed Theater: Relive the near aftermath of the Vietnam War in The Deer Hunter (1978), introduced by co-star Christopher Walken.