We had to wait more than half an hour for Leonardo DicaprioRobert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese will enter the Cannes Film Festival press room to discuss The flower moon killers. On the Croisette there was no traffic jam delay, as there had been on Wednesday at noon with Johnny Depp. They have simply been more than necessary in their encounter with photographers.
But already seated in front of the international press, the performers and the director – there were also Lily Gladstone and Chief Standing Bear, from the Osage tribe – answered each of the questions.
You know: they are usually not too sharp, and there were even a couple of what they thought of Ukraine and Russian interference, and how they filmed in 2021, in the midst of the Covid epidemic.
DiCaprio, who spoke little in just over half an hour that the meeting with the international press lasted, praised Scorsese’s ability to capture what he called “the banality of evil”. “What Marty does so incredibly well is that he is able to expose the humanity of even the most twisted and sinister characters imaginable.”
The flower moon killersWith Indiana Jones and the Call of Fatethe most anticipated films of the Festival, both out of competition for the Palme d’Or, focuses more on the characters of DiCaprio and De Niro, the relationship between the nephew and his uncle in the town of Fairfax, than on the investigation that committed the murders of Osage Natives in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
It doesn’t mean anything, but after the screening of the three-hour and 26-minute film, which DiCaprio is also producing, they received a 9-minute standing ovation, the longest so far at this edition of the Festival, at the Sala del Grand Thèâtre Lumiere .
“It was the culmination of years of work,” he said. Martin Scorsese when asked about such a reception on Saturday evening.
On how his approach to history was, told in the book by journalist David Grann, Scorsese referred to the importance of spending time with the Osage people. “When I was introduced to the book, I said if we were going to approach the Osage Nation, we should be very respectful.”
De Niro, prickly
And Robert De Niro has not missed an opportunity to criticize the former US president, Donald Trump, comparing it to his own character.
It all started with a confession from the actor, who went to Buenos Aires last year to shoot scenes for the series. Nothing, by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. The protagonist of Wild bull admitted to having trouble understanding and connecting with William Hale. “I don’t understand much about my character. Part of him is sincere. The other side, where he’s cheating (the Osage tribesmen), no. We have become much more aware of this dichotomy after what happened with George Floyd and systemic racism.”
And that’s where he took the opportunity to draw a parallel between his character and Donald Trump, whose name the actor initially refused to say aloud during the press conference. “That boy is stupid,” he said of the former president.
To all of this, Lily Gladstone, who plays Mollie Burkhart, the Osage wife of DiCaprio’s character, recalled that the Osage went to William Hale’s funeral, denying their involvement in the brutal murders of the tribesmen.
De Niro spoke again at the press conference, referring to blind loyalty to evil men. “There are people who still believe they can do a good job. How crazy. I had to say it ”, he closed, and began almost the same ovation with which the most sought-after trio of the Festival had been greeted as they entered the hall.
Scorsese, who is 80 today, had been with his friend De Niro here in Cannes in 1976, when they presented Taxi driver. And Scorsese’s last time at the Festival was with the presentation of after hourway back in 1985.
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Source: Clarin