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As
part of the 50th anniversary celebration, the festival is
saluting the career of Robert De Niro with a 12-film retrospective
including Mean Streets (1974), Taxi Driver
(1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging
Bull (1980), The Untouchables (1987),
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Heat
(1995), Casino (1995), Ronin (1998),
Bloody Mama (1970) and Hi Mom
(1970). On 16 February, a special screening of Michael Cimino's
The Deer Hunter
has been programmed. This movie is of particular symbolism
to the festival as it raised heated controversy when screened
at the festival 21 years ago.
His
phenomenally intense and meticulously researched performances
in such diverse films as Taxi Driver, The Godfather,
Brazil and Raging Bull have made Robert De Niro
one of the most respected actors of his generation.
A
saxophonist, a lumbering boxer, a priest, a comedian, a
futuristic plumber, Al Capone, a psychotic
patient, a psycho on the loose any actor (and there
are very few) who can successfully pull off all these roles
richly deserves to be considered "a sacred giant of the
cinema" by French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette
the words he used to crown one of America's greatest
living actors, Robert De Niro.
Born
in New York City on August 17, 1943, De Niro is the son
of Robert De Niro, Sr, an abstract expressionist painter
who raised his son in the once heavily Italian neighbourhood
of Greenwich Village. This is just a stone's throw from
Little Italy, the setting for Martin Scorsese's Mean
Streets, the film that really put De Niro (and Scorsese,
for that matter) on the map. Playing a dim-witted thug,
De Niro did not have to look far from his front door to
find a model for the role.
He
followed up Mean Streets with a string of
roles that put him on track for the Chevalier de l'Ordre
des Arts et Lettres, France's highest official cultural
award. He received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
in The Godfather Part 2 and was nominated
for another for his work in 1978's The Deer Hunter.
Sandwiched between those two films was, perhaps, his most
memorable role, that of Travis Bickle in the 1976 Cannes
Palme d'Or winner, Taxi Driver. Even today,
De Niro continues to challenge himself and audience expectations,
choosing roles that range from the comedic (Analyze
This!) through the dramatic (Ronin)
to the fully fledged wacky (the upcoming The Adventures
Of Rocky And Bullwinkle).
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If
there is any suspicion that the actor is slowing down
as he cruises through middle age, the fact that he has
been linked to seven films scheduled for release, in production
or in pre- and post-production in 2000 quickly dispels
the notion. De Niro, for the time being, ain't goin' nowhere
except Berlin.
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