17th Tribeca opens
Festival founder Robert De Niro can't help but be political during the opening
The 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival opened Wednesday with pugnacious political words from Robert De Niro andthe tender opening-night premiere, “Love, Gilda,” an intimate celebration of the beloved comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) 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 original member Laraine Newman and Tina Fey, who poignantly introduced the film. “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase and Billy Crystal also came to see D’Apolito’s documentary, which closely follows Radner’s meteoric rise, her struggles with eating disorders and depression and her tragically young death from cancer, through readings from Radner’s personal diaries.
It was the second time in a handful of years that Tribeca turned to its fellow New York institution, “SNL,” for opening night. In 2015, the documentary “Live From New York!” kicked off the festival. And it also came just days after De Niro, who co-founded Tribeca, appeared on “SNL” as Special Counsel Robert Mueller in a sketch.
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,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump.
De Niro has been among the most vocal and bluntest of Trump’s critics. He has, for example, previously said he’d like to punch Trump in the face.
At a kickoff luncheon for the press, De Niro referred to Trump as “our Lowlife-in-Chief.”
“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.”
Some elements of this year’s Tribeca, which runs through April 29, are pointedly political.