JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:Director Kirk Jones proves amiable and well prepared when DONALD CLARKEasks the obvious question about his latest film
SOMEWHERE IN My Big Book of Journalistic Atrocities there is an essay explaining why no hack should ever begin a question with the words: "What was it like to work with . . . ?" But Kirk Jones is doomed to hear this phrase from every interviewer. The director of Waking Nedand Nanny McPheehas just helmed a sentimental new film called Everybody's Fine, in which Robert De Niro plays a retired wire manufacturer who decides to visit each of his children in turn and, in so doing, discovers various unhappy truths. There are several interesting things about the project. It is based on an earlier Italian picture by Giuseppe Tornatore. It features some crafty digital photography. But, to anybody of a certain age, one question elbows its way past all others: "What's it like to work with Robert De Niro?"
It is the day before the film’s premiere at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and Kirk Jones – an unstoppably chatty fellow – seems well prepared for the thumpingly obvious question. “I went to him in the first place because I hoped that he could do it. I knew he had five kids and he was, of course, somebody I really wanted. Did I think he would do it? No, of course not. But at that meeting I thought ‘well, I probably couldn’t have done any better’. I still thought the chances were about 20 per cent.”
Jones put De Niro to the back of his mind and began pondering alternatives. Then he received a phone call asking him to go to Berlin, where the great man began chatting in an impressively positive fashion. “It suddenly occurred to me that he was talking as if he was going to do it,” Jones says. “We had this read-through and everybody was in tears.”
Despite his volatile performances in the 1970s and 1980s, De Niro has always come across as a reserved person. Indeed, many see him and Martin Scorsese, his director on such classics as Raging Bulland Taxi Driver, as the Italian-American version of Yin and Yang. Whereas Marty is gregarious and chatty, Bob is said to be somewhat unforthcoming in interviews. His inner depths are very deep indeed.
“When we are on these red-carpet things I will always stop and talk to anybody who asks a question, but Bob will tend to walk straight past,” Jones says. “I had to say to someone recently: ‘It’s not from a point of arrogance, it’s just that he’s not very good at communicating spontaneously. Ninety-nine per cent of actors are good at that because they are performers. But he is an actor and not a performer. He is a very private man, a very simple man. I don’t mean he’s stupid. But he’s awkward in company.”
Jones, an amiable 45-year-old from Bristol, goes on to explain that De Niro worked hard on improving his interview strategies while promoting Everybody's Fine.When they were paired with journalists he made a real effort to connect. "He turned up for the sorts of things he has never done in the past," Jones says.
Has he toned down his Method-mania? In the olden days, if De Niro were playing a wire manufacturer, he’d spend six months coating stretched copper with treated PVC. It’s hard to keep up that level of dedication in your golden years. “Well, he was the most prepared actor I have ever worked with,” Jones says. “I remember looking at his script and almost the whole of the white page was covered in ink and notes and arrows. It’s as if he thought the speech through utterly thoroughly. He had considered every little phrase.”
Jones remains impressed by the De Niro visage. “I can remember watching the monitor during a close-up and I thought that – though I hadn’t asked for it – the camera was tracking in. What’s going on? It transpired it is just something in his face that draws you in. Very hard to explain.”
Judge for yourself when Everybody's Fineopens nationwide tomorrow.
Three To See Today
FOXES
Mira Fornay, a young up-and-coming Slovak director, investigates the immigrant experience in this complex, often troubling drama set in grimmer corners of Dublin. Fine performances all round.
Screen Cinema, 6.30pm
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS
Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey fall in love in this surprisingly touching and original comedy. For once, Carrey manages to be funny without pulling faces (or, at least, not that many).
Cineworld, 6.30pm
SHUTTER ISLAND
It’s finally here. Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s thriller – Leonardo DiCaprio investigates strange doings in a mental asylum – finds the master in Val Lewton territory.
Cineworld, 8.40pm
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