Scorsese and De Niro look back

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‘Tolkien’ looks at early years of ‘Rings’ writer

NEW YORK, April 29, (AP): Ahead of their much-anticipated and most recent collaboration, “The Irishman”, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro convened at the Tribeca Film Festival to look back on their long partnership together.

The talk, staged Sunday at New York’s Beacon Theatre, gave De Niro, co-founder of the festival, one of his most unlikely roles to date: interviewer. With interstitial clips chosen by Scorsese from the director’s filmography, the famously terse actor didn’t so much pepper or prod the filmmaker as occasionally announce it was time to discuss “the next one”.

But if the conversation relied largely on Scorsese, it still offered a window into their long-running collaboration. Begun with 1973’s “Mean Streets” and stretching over nine feature films, it’s one of the most famous director-actor pairs in cinema. One of Scorsese’s other regulars, Leonardo DiCaprio, was among the full crowd, eager to see the legendary New York duo together.

“The Irishman”, which Netflix will release this fall, is their latest gangster film together, following “Mean Streets”, “Goodfellas” and “Casino”. It’s based on the 2003 book “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt, which recounts the life of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (played by De Niro). Al Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa, whose disappearance some have traced to Sheeran.

“It’s in the milieu of the pictures we’ve done together and are known for, in a sense, but I hope from a different vantage point,” said Scorsese. “Years have gone by and we see things in a special way, I hope.”

Though its release is months away, “The Irishman” – one of Netflix’s biggest-budgeted films yet – has already become the new flash point of the ongoing battle between Netflix and movie theaters. The major chains have refused to play releases that don’t abide to the traditional exclusive 90-day theatrical window. Netflix has said that doesn’t serve the interests of its millions of members.

Preservation

How Scorsese will navigate those divisions is being closely watched. The 76-year-old filmmaker is among the most respected in movies, and has long been a devoted advocate of film history and film preservation.

The director didn’t wade into those issues Sunday, but he spoke about how “Irishman” reverberates with themes that have long propelled him. “Casino”, he said, relates to what he considers a current “cultural explosion.”

“It’s the old story: How much is enough?” said Scorsese. “It has to do with our foibles and our pride. It just so happens (to be told with) gangsters and killers and prostitutes and gamblers.”

Scorsese said that “The Irishman” will, like “Casino” did with the score from Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt”, include music from another film. He also said his last feature, “Silence”, his 2016 religion epic about Jesuit priests in feudal Japan, connects with “The Irishman”.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastical world of hobbits, elves and orcs have won over fans around the world in the decades since “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” stories were published.

Now the British novelist himself is the subject of a film that looks at his early years and inspirations for his works.

“X-Men” and “The Favourite” actor Nicholas Hoult plays the title role in “Tolkien”, which follows the author as an orphan, his friendships at school in Birmingham, studies at Oxford University and on the frontline at the Battle of the Somme during World War One.

“We wanted to honour him and tell our story that we thought was fascinating about his formative years that everyone, I feel as a fan…would be intrigued by,” Hoult told Reuters.

“Mirror Mirror” actress Lily Collins plays Edith Bratt, whom Tolkien met when he moved into a boarding house and who would later become his wife and inspire elf Luthien in his fictional Middle-earth world.

“We show her dancing in the forest and … her cheekiness and her love of storytelling and the way that she just would inspire him to continue telling stories,” Collins said.

Tolkien, who was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, published “The Hobbit” in 1937. “The Lord of the Rings” came in three parts between 1954 and 1955.

More than 150 million copies of “The Lord of the Rings” have been sold worldwide. The film adaptations and those for “The Hobbit” trilogy have grossed around $5.8 billion at global box offices.

 “Tolkien” begins its cinema roll-out from May 3.

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