Tribeca fest loves Radner, hates Trump
NEW YORK — The 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival opened Wednesday with pugnacious political words from Robert De Niro and the tender opening-night premiere, Love, Gilda, an intimate celebration of beloved comedian and Saturday Night Live star Gilda Radner.
Lisa D’Apolito’s documentary opened the New York festival in a star-studded screening at New York’s Beacon Theatre that drew generations of SNL cast members, including Laraine Newman and Tina Fey, who introduced the film. D’Apolito’s documentary follows Radner’s meteoric rise, her struggles with eating disorders and depression and her tragically young death from cancer, through readings from Radner’s diaries.
Speaking for herself and SNL castmates Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Rachel Dratch, Fey said Radner — a frizzy-haired force of genuine and joyous comic spirit — made an indelible impression on their generation of female performers.
“She was so authentically herself and so regular, in so many ways,” Fey said. “She was who she was on the TV. We all saw that and were like: ‘I want to do that, and it’s possible.’ ”
The opening came days after De Niro, who co-founded Tribeca with producing partner Jane Rosenthal, appeared on SNL as special counsel Robert Mueller. Wednesday on the Today show, De Niro said he would like to reprise the part.
“I hope there’s a couple where I interrogate him then I arrest him and then I escort him to jail,” De Niro said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump.
At a kickoff luncheon, De Niro referred to Trump as “our Lowlifein-Chief” and rejected what he referred to as the president’s narrow definition of the U.S.
“The country has had a bad year, and you — the press — have taken a lot of hits,” De Niro told the reporters in attendance. “America is being run by a madman who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it came inside a bucket of his beloved Colonel Sanders Fried Chicken.”
The festival will also hold a daylong #TimesUp event on April 28, featuring hours of conversations with the initiative advocating for gender equality. Of the festival’s 99 features, 46 per cent are directed by women, the most in Tribeca’s history. Co-founder Rosenthal has credited that percentage in part with the makeup of Tribeca Enterprises, which she said is 80 per cent female.