De Niro. He is recognized as one of the most successful Italian Americans in the world today, with a set of unmistakably dark inky eyes, which convey everything from calm murderous rage to pure tenderness.
The actor, who is regarded by many to be the best of his generation, is finally shedding some light on his highly guarded personal life by inviting the world to get to know the man who influenced and supported him the most: his father.
“Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr.” which premiered at the Rome International Film Festival this November 17, 2014, was originally intended to be viewed only by his family, a way of introducing his younger children to the grandfather and painter they never knew.
Using mostly original footage, the actor tells family stories and reads from his father’s personal diaries, leading us through the struggles of a brilliant artist, later abandoned by his own artistic community for not conforming to the progressive movements occurring in the painting world of the 1960’s.
The film marks a shift in the usually tight-lipped star, who on several recent occasions, broke down in tears while discussing the documentary and the pain it reveals lived inside his father until his death. Robert De Niro, Sr. was a contemporary of Jackson Pollack’s and rose to fame in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s as a student of Hans Hoffman.
Resentment seemed to swallow the elder De Niro, however, as the art world began to favor pop art and reject his own brand of post-impressionist work. Adding to his feelings of alienation, De Niro, Sr. was a gay man in an era of absolute intolerance and with a failed marriage, his feelings of loneliness led to outbursts of rage and depression.
These familial secrets De Niro shares are only all too familiar to most American families today and serve to humanize both the genius painter and his cinematic icon son. To enjoy De Niro’s loving ode to his father, check out hbo.com.
Donate