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Famil lff ' What better way to kick off a preview of this autumn’s movie highlights than with a bona-fide legend, Robert De Niro. The two-time Oscar winner has always been
notoriously reticent about his private life, but here Richard Mowe finds him playing a family man at a film
festival in the Czech Republic
hen Robert De Niro appears at the
Karlovy Vary festival with his family
in tow he seems a changed man. Gone are the legendary monosyllabic replies and tight- faced grimaces. replaced by an easy smile and a twinkle of the eye.
The festival. whose organisers are honouring the star with a retrospective and a career achievement gong, takes place in a spa town two hours drive from Prague. Karlovy Vary is the antithesis of glitzy events such as Cannes and Venice. Students invade the sedate environs. camping out under the stars or sleeping in school gymnasia to overdose on films for ten days.
This relaxed atmosphere could account for De Niro’s chilled demeanour. He is accompanied by his wife of 11 years. Grace. son Elliot. l(). and his 13-year-old twin sons. Julian and Aaron. the products of his relationship with ex-model and actress Toukie Smith.
Woody Allen once said he and De Niro both knew how to make people keep a respectful distance: ‘You move fast and keep your head down. People don‘t bother you when you’re busy.’ But here De Niro happily signs autographs for the crowds. So how did he acquire his reputation as a ‘difficult’ actor? He mulls over the question before answering: ‘You can have integrity and not necessarily be difficult. As a director I don’t like it when an actor is temperamental. When you do a movie everyone should leave personal problems at home. It‘s difficult enough to make a movie as it is — you don’t need any extra drama to get it into the can. You just need to show up. speak your lines. earn your pay-cheque and leave the ego behind.’
Despite such deprecation of his art. De Niro
frequently contributes more than these basics. Indeed. he co-produced his latest film What Just Happwzedf’. a Hollywood satire directed by Barry Levinson. The film. which stars De Niro as an ageing producer trying to save his career. opened at the Sundance Film Festival in January. then was selected as the closing film at (‘annes and Karlovy Vary. By Hollywood standards its budget is low. coming in at a cool $25 million. but manages to secure some amusing cameos from Sean Penn and Bruce Willis.
Yet. for all its pedigree. What Just Hap/Mimi." was critically mauled and struggled to find a distributor in Europe. De Niro is quick to defend the film: ‘In retrospect I don‘t think there are any bits we could take out or reconfigure. Barry [Levinson] was trying to work out certain things
COMING SOON ‘z’h’lllitiss lhe liln ms of this uulumn's movie schedule
Death Race
Jason Statham and Ian McShane take over from David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone in this big budget (ish) remake of Roger Corman's 1975 schlock car classic. (26 Sep)
film. (26 Sep)
22 THE LIST 4—18 Sep 2008
Happy-Go-Lucky's Eddie Marsan and Spaced's Jessica Hynes star in this rom-com set against the backdrop of nerdy medieval battle re-enactments. which has made cinema history by dint of being the first MySpace-fuelled
Redben
Machismo-fuelled playwright/filmmaker David Mamet flexes his muscles again in this thriller about a Hollywood studio executive/martial artist who finds he must fight one more time . . . (26 Sep)
Liam Neeson channels the spirit of old school tough guy Charles Bronson in this revenge thriller ab0ut an ex—spy on a mission to rescue his estranged daughter from the slave trade. (26 Set);
and it was always a kind of work in progress.‘
So. is Hollywood really as ruthless as it is portrayed in Levinson's satire'.’ ‘lt’s just like any other business.‘ says the actor. ‘But it‘s more visible because it‘s Hollywood. People do what they have to do.‘
De Niro returns to more familiar hard-boiled territory opposite Al Pacino in the forthcoming police crime thriller Righteous Kill. He and Pacino previously worked together on 1995's Heat. The pair play veteran .\'ew York detectives working to identify a possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago. The new thriller was a project De Niro pushed to get made. ‘In Haul. we only had one scene together. which is my favourite scene in the movie: I thought it was
88 Minutes Al Pacino's womanising forensic scientist has less than the
running time of the average Hollywood thriller to solve a murder — his own! — in this real- time romp. Who-ha! (3 Oct)