Robert De Niro honoured as a director

The President of the 2011 Jury, Robert De Niro got behind the camera for the first time in 1993 for A Bronx Tale, a feature film screened in Cannes Classics as part of a tribute to the Tribeca Film Festival.

A Bronx Tale was Robert De Niro’s debut as a movie director. This full length feature depicts the Italian-American community in the Bronx of the 1960s through the eyes of Calogero, a nine-year-old child torn between loyalty to his father, a simple bus driver, and the life of the gangster Sonny and his neighbourhood buddies, which seems to hold greater fascination. Robert De Niro also plays Calogero’s father, Lorenzo Anello. For his first movie as a director, he chose to adapt a script by Chazz Palminteri or rather Calogero Chazz Palminteri. The film was adapted from a play depicting the screenwriter’s own childhood – the script is based on his life story.

A.C.

The film is to be screened at 6.45pm, in the Salle du Soixantième.