Martin Scorsese reunites with Robert De Niro in The Irishman, a 3½-hour-long mob drama the acclaimed director said he chose to do with his frequent collaborator to build on their past work together rather than replicate it.

Set over several decades, The Irishman looks at a Pennsylvania organised crime family with Oscar winners De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in the main roles.

The Netflix movie, which closed the BFI London Film Festival, uses digital de-ageing technology to show the characters in their 30s and 40s. De Niro, Pesci and Pacino are all in their 70s.

The project is Scorsese’s and De Niro’s latest collaboration following acclaimed works such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino.

Martin Scorsese says he wanted to ‘enrich’ past Robert De Niro work with The Irishman

“I was really looking for something with Bob [De Niro] to enrich more or less where we had gone in the ’70s and the ’80s and the early ’90s,” Scorsese told a news conference.

“To just replicate what we had been trying to do at the beginning of our careers wouldn’t be enriching in any way.”

The film begins with elderly narrator Frank Sheeran, played by De Niro, recounting his life.

Told in flashbacks, the audience sees him as a soldier, truck driver and eventually mob hit man after meeting organised crime boss Russell Bufalino, played by Pesci.

The plot, based on Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses, is tied to the disappearance of former US Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa, portrayed by Pacino in his first Scorsese collaboration.

“I’d known Marty and Bob a very long time so when Bob … called me … it sounded really interesting and the opportunity to work with them was very important to me,” Pacino said. “For years, we almost worked together Marty and I.”

The film, which has won rave reviews from critics touting it an Oscar contender, will have a limited theatrical run before and after its November 27 Netflix release.

“The original conception of what a film is and where it’s to be seen has now changed so radically,” Scorsese said.

“Something that should always be protected as much as possible … is a communal experience and I think that’s best in the theater. Now homes are becoming theaters too, it’s a major change and I think one has to keep an open mind.”

The 76-year-old reiterated his comparison of superhero flicks to “theme park” films, where he said “theatres become amusement parks.” “That’s a different experience … it’s not cinema it’s something else whether you go for that or not … and we shouldn’t be invaded by it.”

Asked about watching younger versions of themselves, Pacino who described the de-ageing effects as “a form of make-up,” said: “This whole thing is innovative of course but at the same time, you tell a story, and in the end I’m a little more concerned about that.”

At a festival talk, De Niro reflected on his illustrious career, shared acting tips and renewed his criticism of US President Donald Trump.

“I enjoy movies, I like the fact that … they last forever,” De Niro said, adding he hoped to be remembered “favourably.” — By arrangement with The Japan Times

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 20th, 2019