Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese on the red carpet for The Irishman, Netflix’s new gangster epic – video exclusive

Oct 30 , 2019

Legendary director Martin Scorsese embraces iconic actor Al Pacino, while titanic contemporary Robert De Niro looks on, at an official photo call for The Irishman during the BFI London Film Festival 2019. Photo: AFP

The biggest coup at this year’s BFI London Film Festival was surely the international premiere of The Irishman – Martin Scorsese’s much-hyped mob movie pairing titans Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

We were down on the red carpet, catching interviews with stars including De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin and Stephen Graham, as well as long-term Scorsese collaborators, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff and costume designer Sandy Powell. Watch our exclusive footage below.

Running to an epic three and a half hours, The Irishman follows real-life hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro) as he reminisces about his life, returning from war and eventually gaining notoriety with both the Bufalino crime family and political giants, in a tragic tale of one servant, two masters. Adapted from Charles Brandt’s I Heard You Paint Houses – a phrase used as a euphemism for assassin – the book was first brought to Scorsese’s attention after De Niro read it in 2007.

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The Irishman marks the first collaboration between Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese – while Robert De Niro returns for his ninth feature with the feted director. Photo: EPA-EFE

De Niro and Pesci, both 76, are no newcomers to the Scorsese canon, with The Irishman marking De Niro’s ninth collaboration with the 76-year-old director – capping a 46-year run which includes some of the most celebrated films of their era, Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Goodfellas (1990) – but the pair’s first collaboration in nearly quarter of a century, following 1995’s Casino.

The Irishman also marks the fourth collaboration between co-stars De Niro and Pacino, 79 – following the classics The Godfather Part II (1974) and Heat (1995), but also 2008’s lukewarm Righteous Kill – as well as being both the first collaboration between Pacino and Pesci, and the first time Pacino has been directed by Scorsese.

Produced by streaming giant Netflix, The Irishman was not the only film at the festival with home-video backing, with Amazon Studio’s The Aeronauts also headlining in Leicester Square a few nights earlier.

Netflix has come under fire for not sticking to the traditional theatrical window of six weeks exclusive cinema viewing before hitting its online service. At Scorsese’s request the film is still receiving a limited theatrical release.

This is not the only controversy for the streaming service, after director Steven Spielberg called for Netflix to be banished from the Oscars altogether. But we heard no grumbles from The Irishman’s cast and crew on the red carpet on October 13.

Producer Koskoff cited working with Netflix as “a dream come true, the best studio collaboration I’ve had”, while Keitel praised the company for “doing such wonderful work … bringing together a lot of important talent around the globe” – although he later went on to say, “I don’t know anything about streaming, I don’t even have a smartphone!”

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Harvey Keitel plays Sicilian-American mobster Angelo Bruno in Martin Scorsese's Netflix blockbuster The Irishman. Photo: Reuters

With such heavyweight names involved, expectations are naturally sky high, but so far The Irishman has met an overwhelmingly positive reaction, with audiences praising the slower, more thoughtful nature of the film, as well as the performances. However, some criticism has been levelled at the extensive de-ageing effects used on all of the main cast, making them as young as 24, and as old as 80. These effects, developed by Industrial Light & Magic, were of great cost, ballooning the budget from a proposed US$125 million to US$175 million. The cast also required a posture coach on set – because even ageing acting legends need help learning to strut like a young man again.

The Irishman releases theatrically in the US on November 1, the UK on November 8 and will be streaming internationally on Netflix from November 27.

Video by Christian Haywood and Cameron Reed

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Fame and celebrity

Uniting cinema legends Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel, Martin Scorsese’s Netflix gangster epic The Irishman received its red carpet premiere at the BFI London Film Festival – and STYLE was there to meet the stars