Two buddies take their act on the road
Designer omelettes were being flipped, mimosas were going down, and a sharp California sun was throwing stencilled lines across the storybook garden of the Parker Palm Springs. Before us, boom: a man who made famous those four little words: “You talkin’ to me?”
“If they ever do a remake of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I would kill as Dorothy,” De Niro joked, poking a little fun at the elaborate digital de-aging famously involved in his outing as Frank Sheeran in the recent big-deal movie “The Irishman,” which, as he said, means he can possibly play anything now.
“‘Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,’ ” he went on say to titters heard floating through the garden. “OK, I’ll work on the voice.”
The two-time Oscar winner was here to receive the Variety Creative Impact in Acting Award at an annual post-New Year’s brunch thrown by Variety. And as someone who liked — maybe did not love — “The Irishman,” it hit me then: what I do love, and can always get behind, is an awards season that offers us the real-life buddy-buddy act of De Niro, 76, and his longtime collaborator, Martin Scorsese (also in attendance at this brunch, held as part the Palm Springs International Film Festival). For two days in a row, I had the opportunity to hear the geezers speak at two different occasions, the drill being equal parts bonhomie and been-there-done-that philosophizing.
Describing working on “The Irishman’ as a homecoming, De Niro went on to explain: “I was making a movie with my best friends. When I think about it, I can’t believe how f--king old these guys are. You can’t de-age friendships. We spent 108 shooting days; I wish we could have shot for 108 more.”
About the process, he emphasized: “You don’t do it alone … And it wouldn’t be any fun if you did do it alone.”
Scorsese, who had taken the al fresco podium just a little earlier to introduce the actor, echoed many of the sentiments. Noting that he and De Niro have made nine films together, thus far —“God willing, we’re on the 10th, with Leo (DiCaprio)” — he called his friend “the greatest actor of his generation.”
Demonstrating a young-atheart glint that I have long come to expect from the epically browed 77-year-old — and the vibe I always get that he and De Niro are ultimately just lads playing around in a big sandbox — Marty also had this to say: “We met when we were 16 years old. I think the first movie star I had worked with was Paul Newman in ‘The Color of Money.’ Before that … it was all just working with friends, almost like home movies. That culminated in ‘The Irishman.’ ”
This was actually Day Two of taking the mutual appreciation show, as I mentioned — and a bit of a bromantic déjà vu for those who had been at the larger festival gala held the night before at the local convention centre. On that occasion De Niro presented an honour to Scorsese — the Sonny Bono Visionary Award — and sang similar praises. Scorsese, following him, took the opportunity then to lay down some tough love when it comes to the cinematic climate these days (this despite his latest film having come via Netflix).
Telling us how dedicated he is to preserving the art of film — and why he created the Film Foundation — he went on to say that he’s concerned with the way movies are treated as consumer experiences and “slotted” into categories before being “given a chance to breathe.
“I’m concerned about pictures being suggested by algorithms,” he explained, adding that the end result of that is binge-watching, which can be fun but is often counterproductive.
His point? “There’s this paranoia which kind of sets in when it comes to algorithms. Once I punched up Netflix or something and I see, ‘Because you watched ‘A Zombie Slumber Massacre,’ and I said, ‘I didn’t watch it, it was a mistake. It really was.’ I know the business has changed and everything changes all the time … that’s what it’s about. It’s wide open though, now. You can watch everything anytime anywhere, and that puts a burden on you — the viewer. Not all changes are all for the good, and I just feel that we might be tilting, if we’re not careful, we might be tilting the scales away from that creative viewing experience and away from movies as an art form.”
The yin to that yang? “For me, ultimately, it’s remarkable that so many movies are being made today. It’s a dream that you can see them almost immediately accessible. In the old days, you’d have to go from theatre to theatre; I’m short and people in front of me were tall and I couldn’t see.”
He added: “In the end, the business won’t survive without the art, which is made by somebody with something to say. Every individual filmmaker amounts to more than the number of awards they won and the amount of money they make … and the viewer amounts to more than data.”
Knowing well enough to play to the home-town crowd, and understanding that this gala is a staple on the celebrity calendar — a pre-Golden Globes hoopla that had also paid tribute that night to the likes of Charlize Theron, Antonio Banderas, Cynthia Erivo, Laura Dern and Joaquin Phoenix, among others — Scorsese did not forget to flatter accordingly. No neophyte, he.
“You know, it’s been 37 years since I’ve been in Palm Springs,” he said. “I must say it’s changed. It’s wonderful to be here at the festival that’s held in a place that’s so much a part of show business history.”
And that is how it is done.
The geezers spoke at two different occasions, the drill being equal parts bonhomie and been-there-done-that philosophizing