In the course of 85 years, the “Showplace of the Nation,” Radio City Music Hall, has hosted countless spectaculars, but few I suspect as geriatric as Wednesday night’s revue of strutting septuagenarians revisiting their classic hits from the AM radio era — Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, the late Maurice White (in the person of what’s left of Earth, Wind, and Fire), Carly Simon and Aretha Franklin. A few youngsters performed too, including Jennifer Hudson and Kenny G. You certainly wouldn’t mistake this for SXSW. Call it North by Northeast. (With a tip of the bowler to Hitch.) That would explain […]
by David Leitner on Apr 22, 2017Just a day after issuing a statement supporting what he dubbed a personal decision to screen a controversial documentary, Vaxxed, by discredited researcher and former doctor Andrew Wakefield, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro has pulled the film from this year’s festival. Last night, De Niro issued the following statement: My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family. But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 27, 2016The following statement by Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro was provided to Filmmaker by the festival in response to the controversy that has arisen around the screening of Andrew Wakefield’s documentary, Vaxxed, discussed here in Penny Lane’s open letter. From Robert De Niro: Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2016Last night’s Gotham Independent Film Awards were highlighted by a series of tributes to luminaries of the film world. We’ve posted both the intros and acceptance speeches. Let’s start with Robert De Niro’s tribute to Helen Mirren: And the wonderful Helen Mirren, taking De Niro’s lusty testimonial in stride: Next up we have Dan Rather, who quotes Archibald MacLeish (!) while paying tribute to Robert Redford… But not until this part of the ceremony, which includes Redford’s speech, a probing look back at his career. Julianne Moore understandably gushed when introducing Todd Haynes: And Haynes followed up with a speech […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 1, 2015The IFP Gotham Awards celebrate their 25th anniversary this November with a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street. Along with awards going to the top independent films of the year, the Gothams will present Tribute Awards to Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, Todd Haynes and Steve Golin. Here, Peter Bowen culls the archives of IFP, Filmmaker’s publisher and parent organization, to find 25 memorable moments from the Gotham’s history of celebrating New York and independent filmmaking. 1991 The Cost of Film In 1991, IFP executive director Catherine Tait stood before a seated crowd of some 400 people at Roseland to explain what […]
by Peter Bowen on Oct 28, 2015While it may not be as consciously constructed as that of Quentin Tarantino’s, the film meta-world of Martin Scorsese would seem to at some point demand the pairing of his two most durable leading men, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. That time is now, apparently, as the two men appear in a short branded content film for the $3.2 billion City of Dreams casino in Manila Bay, Philippines. It may not be what we wanted, but it shouldn’t pass by unnoticed. The trailer for the film, The Audition, is posted above. Both actors have been reported to have received […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015Posted by Jerome Jarre is what he bills as Robert De Niro’s first six-second film. (On first view, it kind of falls into the “Hey, is this thing on?” category of unintentional art.) Hat tip: MUBI Notebook.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2014“Look at this world we’re living in,” a videotaped Sandra Bernhard said Sunday at the Borough of Manhattan Community Center Theater. “It’s a shit show! Whatever we presented in The King of Comedy went so far beyond our wildest expectations that [the movie] seems almost homespun.” The occasion was the closing night of the 12th Tribeca Film Festival and its screening of Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, restored in luscious 4K and attended by the director, star (and Tribeca co-founder) Robert De Niro, and, in a surprise appearance, Jerry Lewis, who plays the film’s aggrieved and assaulted late-night talk […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 1, 2013Jamaa Fanaka, the eclectic and kind-hearted film director, the most commercially minded of the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers and perhaps the most prolific student filmmaker of all time (all three of the features he made as a grad student found distribution), died one year ago today. Although word leaked out about his death a short time after he passed away, likely from complications of diabetes, I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t hear of it until several weeks later, when his obituary finally appeared in the New York Times. Ashamed because in the intervening year since I […]
by Brandon Harris on Apr 1, 2013New Yawk New Wave has been running at Film Forum since January 11 but still has a couple of precious days of life left. In a way, it’s one of the more ambitious curatorial projects to emerge from the theater’s august archivists. The series isn’t bound to a single era (it encompasses the period from 1953 to 1973), genre (everything from madcap comedy to downcast drama makes an appearance), or even style (there’s New Wave, cinema vérité, post-noir, and whatever you want to call Robert Downey Sr.’s still-photos-plus-voiceovers oddity, Chafed Elbows). Besides New York origins, the main thing this wildly […]
by Jim Allen on Jan 30, 2013