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| Robert De Niro in conversation at the Cannes Film Festival with visual artist JR: 'Being in a movie theatre, experiencing together whatever’s being shown, is just special' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
It was a difficult gig for Robert De Niro when he appeared before the multitudes this afternoon as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s tribute to the veteran.
Instead of a normal interviewer he chose instead to be quizzed by the French visual artist JR with whom he is working on a new documentary about this late father.
He even managed to show clips of the work in progress, which revealed blow-up images of his father, who was a painter and died in 1993. It wasn’t the easiest of conversations with De Niro pondering his own immortality at the age of 81.
The audience clearly had not expected such a direction for the encounter and would much have preferred to have had a roll call of comments on his greatest hits following the award of his honorary Palme d’Or the day before.
De Niro soldiered on: “We’re kind of seeing where we’re going, I don’t know where we’ll go. There’s no time limit, as far as I’m concerned. You just do it and wherever it arrives or winds up, that’s OK.
"It’s not essential that I see the final thing. Am I afraid of death? I don’t really have a choice, so you might as well not be afraid of it.”
Speaking directly to JR De Niro confessed he was not sure when the film might come out. “Production may even continue after my death. So once I’m not even around, JR is just going to be shooting on and on forever and asking me questions when I’m in my coffin.”
De Niro who is famously monosyllabic in his responses warmed to the topic of cinema as a collective experience. “All I know is telling stories visually in film or whatever it is. I always want there to be movies in cinemas like this, because there’s a difference in having an experience in a theatre than having one alone … Something about the tradition of being in a movie theatre, experiencing together whatever’s being shown, is just special. And you can’t take that away from what it is.”
