Latest news with #RagingBull
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mount Rushmore of Directors: Ranking America's Most Iconic Filmmakers
Mike and Nancy Pfeffer, Albany Dear Mike and Nancy Pfeffer: By American, I'm going to assume you mean people who made the bulk of their movies in the United States. And I'm going to go by the criteria set by director Peter Weir, who said that, to be among the greatest directors, a filmmaker has to have made three masterpieces. By that standard, among living directors, I'd go with Martin Scorsese ('Raging Bull,' ' The Wolf of Wall Street,' ' The Irishman '); Woody Allen ('Annie Hall,' 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'); Quentin Tarantino (' Inglourious Basterds,' ' Django Unchained,' ' Once Upon a Time in Hollywood') and Richard Linklater ('Before Trilogy,' ' Boyhood '). All four have met that standard. So have Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, so this is a crowded Mount Rushmore. Among dead directors, I'd go with Ernst Lubitsch ('Ninotchka, 'Design for Living,' 'The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'); Monta Bell ('Lady of the Night,' 'After Midnight,' 'Downstairs'); Alfred Hitchcock (' Vertigo,' North by Northwest,' 'Psycho') and Charles Chaplin ('The Gold Rush,' 'City Lights,' 'Modern Times'). Dennis Briskin, Palo Alto Dear Dennis: That's true, and I repeat that I didn't even meet him. I was just relieved that I didn't have to. I was at a press conference for 'Get Shorty,' and after seeing the way he talked to the press, I was glad that I wasn't assigned to interview him one on one. (Instead, I had to interview John Travolta, who might actually be the nicest guy in the world.) In any case, Hackman made enough of an impression that, 30 years later, I wasn't surprised to hear that he left his kids out of his will. I mean, leaving out one kid might be an oversight. Leaving out two is pushing it. But leaving out all three begins to seem like it might be his fault. Hey Mick: You've never met Gene Hackman, yet you took the opportunity to make him out to be a 'prickly and difficult person.' Shame on you. I had a brief encounter with Mr. Hackman while on vacation in Southern California years ago. My wife and I approached him, and I told him how much we admired his work. He was very nice, asked where we were from, why we were down in SoCal, and if we were having a good time. He actually told us to check out a local eatery off the main drag. Seemed like a really nice, down to earth, regular guy. Lloyd Cavalieri, Berkeley Hey Lloyd: You may be right. Then again, it's not much of a strain to impersonate a human being when approached by two nice people saying, 'We both think you're great.' Even Charles Manson probably could have held it together for that long. And when he mentioned the local eatery off the main drag, did you consider the possibility that he was trying to tempt you with food just to get you to stop talking to him? And if he was really such a regular guy, why did he recommend an 'eatery' and not a plain old restaurant? Sorry, but there are other angles to consider here.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Barry Keoghan Says Working With The Weeknd Will Help Him Portray Ringo Starr in Beatles Biopic (Exclusive)
It's not every day that you get the chance to work with a legendary musician, and when the opportunity arises, you grab it. At least that's what Barry Keoghan, Jenna Ortega and director Trey Edward Shults thought when they were approached about working with The Weeknd (who is credited by his real name, Abel Tesfaye) on his upcoming music-forward film Hurry Up Tomorrow. The film, which hits theaters on May 16, is semi-autobiographical and features music from The Weeknd's latest album, also titled Hurry Up Tomorrow, but it's not exactly a visual album. "I knew this was going to be an experience and a unique movie," Keoghan tells Parade ahead of the movie's release. "I wanted to be part of Abel's vision, and I'm a massive fan of Trey and a massive fan of Jenna. It's a no-brainer when you see that on a page, and I'm up for this sort of challenge of it all." Hurry Up Tomorrow is certainly a singular project. Tesfaye plays a fictional musician who goes by Abel/The Weeknd as his fame drives him into madness, with Ortega playing a mysterious woman he crosses paths with and Keoghan as a calming force on Abel/The Weeknd's management team. It's not a biopic, not a music video, not a drama and not a documentary, but some melding of them all. Tesfaye and Shults cite a bevy of inspiration for the project, including musician-forward projects like Prince's Purple Rain and Pink Floyd's The Wall, as well as traditional films like Raging Bull, Persona and Jacob's Ladder. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 Interestingly enough, Tesfaye dreamt up the idea for Hurry Up Tomorrow, the movie, before putting together his album of the same name. He didn't even write most of the movie's/album's music until after filming had wrapped. "I was in a unique position where I was able to score to picture and write music to picture," he says about the process. "It was maybe two records that were actually complete [before filming], and then the final song, which I had to write the day before I performed it. So those were the only couple songs that were done. After that, I got to write lyrics that bring scenes out, and some scenes that didn't make the film, I got to turn into songs." Writing a song the night before you film an entire scene based around it certainly seems nerve-wracking. "I blacked out that week," Tesfaye says. "Definitely a lot of pressure, but look, writing and performing a song, it's a very vulnerable moment." Related: Tesfaye's decision to create Hurry Up Tomorrow makes a lot more sense after realizing that the Super Bowl Halftime performer is also quite the cinephile. In fact, he hand-selected his collaborators based on their previous work. "Abel wanted to meet," Shults says, beginning the story of how he joined the project. "Huge fan," Tesfaye interrupts. It was Shults' film Waves that inspired him to reach out. "I could tell he was a genuine huge fan, too," Shults remembers of their first meeting. "We basically connected over an idea, and honestly, I was in a little bit of a rut after Waves. I was kind of depressed and not excited about movies, and that's why it's been a minute. Then I started getting inspiration again, but the the first time I got the full light bulb, excited inspiration with writing and a project was this. After our meeting, we ran with that momentum. We met in October, I wrote the outline with Abel in November, there was a draft by December, and we were shooting in February." But Shults wasn't the only member of the team Tesfaye courted. "I was a huge fan of Sacred Deer," Tesfaye says regarding Keoghan's film The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Such a fan that Tesfaye went up to Keoghan at a party and introduced himself well before Hurry Up Tomorrow was in the works. "I always knew you were gonna play [the part] if you would accept the role." For Ortega, who was coming off the success of Wednesday, the atmosphere that Shults and Tesfaye fostered on the Hurry Up Tomorrow set appealed to her. "I was kind of unsure what to do," she says about selecting projects after Wednesday. "I swear my career was almost like night and day. It all just opened up. So I was taking meetings, and Trey and Abel are such incredibly kind, warm, just comfortable people to be around, and are such cinephiles and fans of movie themselves. It instantly was apparent to me that this was a team that I wanted to be associated just felt like a very collaborative space, so that's why I joined." Related: While one may think that working with someone as famous as The Weeknd, and someone without much acting experience to boot, could be difficult, Keoghan describes the shoot as "comfy." Ortega echoes that sentiment: "It felt very relaxed in the best way possible." Keoghan also compared working on Hurry Up Tomorrow to working on "student movies where everyone's just there to get it, and everyone's on the same page." Collaborating so closely with Tesfaye also gave Keoghan the opportunity to witness a massive superstar on an intimate level. Keoghan was recently cast to play Ringo Starr of The Beatles in an upcoming biopic, and when asked if he'll be channeling any of his experience with The Weeknd into his Ringo performance, he responded in the affirmative. "Yeah, I know Abel as Abel, and that's sort of a different thing. I can really separate the two. And for me, this movie even puts Abel in a different place that I think I've never seen Abel," says Keoghan of his time with Tesfaye. "It's sort of like we're seeing a new person. I'm always curious and observant, and I take in what I can." Hurry Up Tomorrow premieres in theaters on May 16.
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Fifth Step review – Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman go head to head
Jack Lowden wasn't away from the stage for as long as his Slow Horses co-star Gary Oldman but it's still a thrill to find him returning to theatre. Seen at the Edinburgh international festival last summer, The Fifth Step – his first play since 2018 – gives him a character both volatile and vulnerable in a two-hander bristling with playwright David Ireland's signature style of knotty provocation and ribald comedy. Lowden resumes the role of Luka, now playing opposite Martin Freeman as James (a part originated in Scotland by Sean Gilder). Luka is new to Alcoholics Anonymous and asks the older James to be his sponsor; the drama unfolds on the verge of the confessional stage in AA's 12-step programme, with Luka expected to acknowledge the harm his addiction has done to himself and others. The play is perceptive about what it means to put your trust not just in another person but also in a programme or organised religion – and how to reconcile what you gain from the exchange with any flaws or failings of that body. Ireland pulls off a tone that is sceptical yet earnest, echoing the sincerity and hangdog humour of the opening song, I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday), by Johnny Cash, who knew a thing or two about addiction. That song is warped in the first of several scene transitions, coolly lit by Lizzie Powell, that add off-kilter energy to an in-the-round, interval-free production, stretched as tight as a drum by director Finn den Hertog. The humour ricochets as it did in den Hertog's Square Go, which tussled with younger masculinity, and there is a brilliantly handled apparition of Willem Dafoe as Jesus in a gym (almost Christ on a bike) that recalls the vision of Gerry Adams in infant form in Ireland's unforgettable Cyprus Avenue. Designer Milla Clarke dresses Luka in hoodie and trainers, James in smart shirt and suede shoes; the younger man is all restless legs and twitching fingers, his sponsor composed and watchful. As ever, Freeman is a master of the perplexed reaction, especially in James's multi-levelled incredulity at the suggestion that, as a married man, he has 'pussy on tap'. When Luka is advised to abstain from his gargantuan appetite for masturbation, Lowden matches Freeman in comic disbelief – his eyes widen in horror at the proposal. The timing is impeccable throughout but as the tables are turned, and James's behaviour is scrutinised, both give unsettling performances in a drama that specifically interrogates the role of a sponsor yet applies to multiple positions of authority and influence, including parenthood and priesthood. What appears at first to be a predictable plot twist, foreshadowed by a choice bit of dialogue from Raging Bull, swerves into something more psychologically interesting. The anonymous meeting-room set gives no place to hide as the pair, together on stage throughout, go toe to toe. If the violence that eventually erupts is undercharged, the notes of absurdity are perfectly measured and it ends not with a bang but whimsy. What power do you give another when you put your faith in them? What standards do you hold them to when you seek advice? When does care turn into control? As the questions proliferate and the pair argue over setting boundaries, Ireland continually blurs them in a play that regularly elicits winces. 'Those that are crying will later be laughing,' paraphrases James from the Bible. The reverse is perhaps true for this troubling take on feeling lost and the thorny question of redemption. At @sohoplace, London, until 26 July
Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The only choice is to learn to embrace life, the good and the bad: Robert De Niro
One of the most anticipated events at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival was a centre-piece conversation with Robert De Niro, who comes with the formidable refutation of saying one word if two won't do. For much of the hour-long chat, moderated by French visual artist JR , it appeared that the veteran actor, a spry 82, would stick to the plan. It wasn't as if the audience wasn't primed : the Debussy theatre, which boasts of the steepest steps at the Festival de Palais, was full, and De Niro got a standing ovation, his second in two days. Sitting in the last row was a bit of a bummer, but there wasn't much that your reporter missed because the man who has starred in some of the most enduring Hollywood blockbusters, was basically just sitting across his interlocutor and going 'yes', 'yeah', 'yes exactly', and then lapsing into silence. A documentary he is making on his father's life, directed by JR, is still a work in progress. But the glimpses we got, especially when the thespian shared details about his father, who also has the same name, moved the chat somewhat into the realm of the personal. 'Bobby is a very private person,' said JR, and it was clear that De Niro finds it hard, or at least that's what he projects, to give us a peek into his personal life. 'When I was younger I was all over the place,' De Niro said, fending off his mother's attempts to get him interested in 'family stuff'. One of the most striking scenes in the film has the actor stretched flat out on a huge cutout of his father,on a boat chugging along in New York harbour. If the rest of the film is even half as impactful as that one scene, we are in for a rare treat. A showreel ahead of the chat gave us glimpses of some of his most memorable roles. From Martin Scorsese's 'Raging Bull', in which he plays a washed-up boxer, to Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' in which he plays a disturbed cabbie, and that stunning scene in Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon A Time in America', with those four young men crossing the road under the bridge, as well as his later films, including yet another Scorsese opus 'Killers Of The Flower Moon'. It recalled a time when movies were what we went to, so unlike now when they come to us, nestling in our devices, switched on and off by a button. It took him almost till the end of the conversation to start getting warmed up. When asked about the state of cinema these days, he said he couldn't speak broadly about cinema: 'All I know is telling stories visually, and the movie theatre experience is special'. An actor asked what he looks for when a script comes to him. 'When in doubt, have no doubt, follow your instinct, and trust your first impulse,' De Niro said. The conversation ended with a profound thought startling in its simplicity, when someone asked how come he wasn't scared of death. 'If I have no choice, then I have to accept it,' he said. Growing older is the only option. 'What I knew then, I do not know now, and what I know now, I did not know then. The only choice is to learn to embrace life, the good and the bad'.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Robert De Niro 'doesn't say much, but when he does, it matters,' Leonardo DiCaprio says. The actor's prolific career, in his own words.
Robert De Niro was presented with the honorary Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival's opening ceremony Tuesday night. After thanking the festival for the honor, the Academy Award-winning actor, 81, used the opportunity to rail against 'philistine' President Trump, a frequent target of his criticism, for being an 'enemy of the arts' and ordering tariffs on films made outside the United States. 'You can't put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it,' De Niro said. 'Of course, this is unacceptable. All of these attacks are unacceptable. And this isn't just an American problem, it's a global one. Like a film, we can't just all sit back and watch. We have to act, and we have to act now.' De Niro — who was accompanied by partner Tiffany Chen in a rare appearance — called for 'everyone who cares about liberty' to protest and 'vote.' While his speech was political, the moment at the start of the 12-day festival in France was really a celebration of De Niro's esteemed career, which Leonardo DiCaprio spoke about while presenting him with the award. The two men first starred together in the 1993 film This Boy's Life and did so more recently in 2023's Killers of the Flower Moon. "The audition process was a tough one,' DiCaprio said of being cast in This Boy's Life as a teen. There's lots of competition. None of us knew who would get the part. And at 15 or 16 years old, I did the only thing I could think to stand out: I screamed at him at the top of my lungs. The room burst into laughter.' De Niro was asked later that day who he wanted to see cast in the role, 'And in classic De Niro fashion, he replied, 'Second kid from the last,'' said DiCaprio. 'Luckily, that second kid was me. And that moment changed my life forever." DiCaprio said that De Niro 'doesn't say much, but when he does, it matters. Whether it's for his friends, his family, fighting for our democracy or supporting the art of filmmaking, he shows up.' And while quiet, De Niro's collaborations with director Martin Scorsese — including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon — "redefined what cinema could be.' As he wrapped up, DiCaprio said that anyone who knows De Niro is aware that 'he's not someone who particularly enjoys being in the spotlight off camera,' but 'even the most private giants deserve their moment, a moment to be acknowledged, not just for their work but for the quiet lasting influence they've had on so many lives.' One of the most widely recognized and talented actors of our time, De Niro has been making movies for 60 years. His career has netted him nine Oscar nominations, with two wins for Best Supporting Actor in The Godfather Part II (1974) and Best Actor in Raging Bull (1980). While his films range in genre — drama, action, romance, comedies — he's known for creating strong, character-driven roles and uttering lines so memorable you can recognize them in just four words — like "You talkin' to me?" from 1976's Taxi Driver, which he actually improvised. Despite De Niro not loving interviews, he's given many, along with insightful quotes about his Hollywood career and the characters he's entertained us with. 'I'm lucky that I have whatever I had that makes me have a successful career,' De Niro told CBS News in 2013. Pressed on his use of luck, he added, 'Well, then I'm lucky I have the drive to do the work. But you're always lucky.' 'Getting the part changed my career, or revved it up, if you will,' he told Cigar Aficiando in 2015. 'Then winning the Academy Award, you're kind of guaranteed that you're going to work again as an actor. … The anticipation of Godfather II was really big. Luckily, [director] Francis [Ford Coppola] wanted me to do it.' 'Every character has a certain rhythm to it, and you have to do whatever it takes to locate that,' he told AARP in 2024. 'I don't get into these long-winded, heavy discussions about character — do we do this or that or what,' he told the New York Times in 2012. 'At the end of the day, what you gotta do is just go out there and do it. And the director respects what they've hired you for and chosen you for: to do the part and respect what you're doing.' 'You're not in a competitive situation with another actor,' he said in a 2013 TimesTalks. 'The better they are, the better you are.' 'I'll work with a director if I think I'm going to get into a comfortable situation, and if it's someone I respect and who respects me, even if they're not so well known,' he told Interview in 2012. 'Movies are hard to make, and you have to work toward a common ethic and do your best. You don't want to work with people who don't care or who are acting out some neurotic, crazy thesis on the set. Who needs it? Life is too short. But I've been very lucky in that area.' '[I'm] very lucky to have started working with Marty in my late 20s and done all these projects together,' he told People in 2024. 'I always say this, he's good with everyone. He allows people to do what they can do best, and then he'll direct from there. … He has very clear ideas but knows not to impose anything and let the people just feel free enough to be expressed as much as they can through whatever they're doing.' "It's a different kind of thing in comedy," he told in 2009. "You feel like you have a little more freedom or leeway to stretch it. You can put more emphasis on things that you normally wouldn't, where you'd be going over a line. … You can kick it up a bit." 'It takes a lot of work to direct a movie,' he said on Real Time With Bill Maher in 2024. 'If you do a film, you make it your own.' 'I guess Raging Bull because of [putting on] the weight and all that,' he said during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable in 2019. On the podcast Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble in 2025, he said, 'When I was gaining [ the 60 pounds], I ate pancakes in the morning, I had to eat in the morning, three full meals, which was hard to do, and then digest the food, to eat lunch and then dinner. … It's kind of fun for the first 10, 12, 15 pounds, and [then] it's drudgery.' 'Every day for 40 f***ing years at least one of you has come up to me and said … 'You talkin' to me,'' he said in 2016 at Taxi Driver's 40th anniversary screening. 'It was done spontaneously,' he said on Live With Kelly and Mark in 2025. 'You don't know what's going to [happen]. That's the fun of working, especially with someone like Marty Scorsese. It's nice to be able to go here and there, go off, following the scene or the thrust of the story, but you can go here and there. You never know when that stuff is usable.' 'It's like doing three features back to back,' he said at a 2025 screening. 'I likened it to being in the English Channel — swimming to England from France, looking behind me and not seeing France, looking ahead, not seeing England. I gotta keep going, otherwise I'm gonna sink.' "Everybody's worried," he told Yahoo Entertainment in 2025. "I was talking to somebody the other day who was saying that they were trying to re-create a similar script to a well-known story, and they put it all together with different elements of AI — and they came up with a pretty good thing." That said, "You can't replace people.' 'I hope I can. I'm very busy,' he said on Real Time With Bill Maher. 'I keep going because I know if you don't keep going, you will atrophy and dry up.' 'I tell any actors — I tell my own kids this — if you're reading for something, just assume you're not going to get the part,' he said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2022. 'That will free you … to make a bolder choice maybe.' 'No,' he said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2025. 'If you didn't have critics — even though they can annoy you and upset you — [who] would tell you how it is?' he told the New York Times in 2012. 'Because people won't tell you. When you do a movie and you're showing it to people or audiences or friends, they're never going to say that they dislike it. Because they're with you and they know what you went through. So they'll always find a positive thing to say. So the people who you'll get real feedback from are critics. Especially good critics.' 'What am I gonna do?' he told On Demand Entertainment in 2025. 'Am I gonna play golf? I don't play golf.'
