A Bronx Tale, Robert De Niro’s 1993 directorial debut, starred because the Tribeca Festival’s closing gala with the famed actor acknowledging that he by no means obtained requested to direct once more following the movie’s inauspicious field workplace debut.
“I was lucky to be able to make the movie. I made it the way I wanted to make it. I didn’t compromise at all. And I took longer to do [it] than was scheduled. And I had a lot of pressure…So I never got asked to do movies after that. That’s okay,” he stated, sitting down with Chazz Palminteri in an interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick after a screening of the newly remastered movie.
Remick reminded him he’d additionally directed The Good Shepherd (2006, starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie). “I did The Good Shepherd. But that was another uphill battle,” De Niro stated.
A Bronx Tale opened to $3.7 million at over 1,000 theaters, stated Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal in opening remarks. “That’s not a good number.” But, she added, “The film never died. It kept growing in popularity.” Palminteri famous that it ended up grossing $17 million, on a $21 million finances.
It’s primarily based on an autobiographical one-man play initially written and carried out by Palminteri (Bullets over Broadway, The Usual Suspects). De Niro stars as a loyal father battling an area mob boss, performed by Palminteri, for the lifetime of his son, in racially divided Sixties New York.
The present was massive success and Palminteri stated he had many provides for a movie model however selected to go together with De Niro, who had his coronary heart set on the undertaking for his first outing as a director and agreed to let Palminteri write the screenplay and play the gangster, Sonny.
“I just wanted to direct and I couldn’t find anything,” stated De Niro. “It’s a lot of work to develop something. And I saw this is one man show and I said, ‘Let me try and do this…I know I could add to it and contribute to it.’”
Palminteri wrote the play when he was wanting money after being fired from a bouncer job for refusing to let tremendous agent Swifty Lazar enter a venue. “It was his party, and I didn’t let him in. Because he was really rude. He said, ‘Do you know who I am?’ I said, ‘Yeah, the guy who’s not getting in.’”
Screenings and occasions for the 22nd annual competition, which runs June 7-18, proceed tonight and tomorrow however the movie, produced by Jane Rosenthal, was chosen because the official closing occasion.
Rosenthal and DeNiro based competition after 9/11. “I’ve always been hopeful that it would become part of the fabric of New York City, like many great traditions in New York. And it’s done that so far, and so I’m very happy,” De Niro stated.
This 12 months’s version options over 100 movies, musical performances in addition to video games, digital actuality and audio competitions.
Discussion about this post