Scorsese/De Niro at Picturehouse at FACT
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
There have been volumes published on the partnership between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. The films the pair made together made seismic waves across the industry, affecting the type of movies commissioned by studios, changing our perception of actors and the lengths they should go to for a performance, and inspiring four decades worth of imitators.
Indeed, the retrospective scheduled at Liverpool’s Picturehouse at FACT this year is not the first or last to be dedicated to Scorsese/De Niro. But when the films are this good, it’s hard to mind too much. In the lead-up to the release of Killers of the Flower Moon – the duo’s tenth feature film collaboration – FACT have scheduled four of their finest collaborations to screen on Sunday’s throughout late August and September.
The greatest hits selection starts with Taxi Driver (Sun 27 Aug) and ends with The King of Comedy (Sun 17 Sept). In between there are showings of Goodfellas (Sun 3 Sept) and Raging Bull (Sun 10 Sept). Each presents a different world, masterfully conceived and driven by powerhouse performances. There are angles on violence, masculinity, celebrity and power and the flipside, on fragile egos, mental struggles and human weakness.
They are films that fans have seen again and again, and yet, in spite of those imitators (who keep on trying), they feel utterly fresh and alive. Taxi Driver still seems dangerous. It’s hard not to marvel at De Niro’s dedication in transforming himself for Raging Bull or Scorsese’s audacity as we enter the Copacabana in Goodfellas. Hell, Todd Phillips attempted to remake The King of Comedy just four years ago.
Moviegoers are eagerly awaiting Killers of the Flower Moon, which pairs De Niro with Scorsese’s other muse, Leonardo DiCaprio, later this year. FACT’s Scorsese/De Niro season builds anticipation while putting some of the greatest films ever made back on the big screen where they belong.
