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| Monica Belluci and Robert De Niro |
Robert De Niro’s Italian movie – complete with romantic scenes with Monica Belluci – opened yesterday in Italy and we can only hope it will make it to the United States.
I found this interview by Rocco Giurato in a magazine that they were giving away free at the movie theaters and took my best stab at translating it. De NIro heads an all star Italian cast and plays Adrian, an art history professor who is divorced and decides to live in Rome. Playing Adrian was called a true “myth of the seventh art”, where De Niro will find himself at the center of a strange relationship with a doorman at the building he’s living in, whose daughter VIola turns his tranquil existence upside down.
Rocco Giurato – Your coworkers (on Manuale d’Amore 3) are full of compliments for you.
De Niro – I have to say, it was nice coming home to work with Italian actors since I’m a little Italian myself.
Giurato – What drew you to make this Italian movie?
De Niro – I saw the first two Manuale D’Amore’s ( 1 & 2) on DVD and I really enjoyed them. Then (director) Giovanni Veronesi talked to me about the new script; I met him in Sicily last June and he seemed like a great guy, so I accepted. I studied Italian so that I wouldn’t have to be dubbed because I already knew some words and saying the lines wasn’t really a problem. I had to practice a lot and I hope everybody likes it.
Giurato – What do you know about today’s Italian cinema ?
De Niro – I don’t know as much as I should. I saw “Il Divo” and I liked it a lot. I had seen the “Manuale d’Amore”s but I would have liked to see others by Veronese. Then Leone, Bertolucci, Fellini, the glorious Italian cinema that I know well...
We’ll pause here, for my editoral scream of frustration – Hey De Niro! There’s actually life after Fellini in Italian cinema!
Giurato – Would you like to direct?
De Niro – I don’t know, when you direct you have to be in control of everything and it takes a lot of energy.
Giurato – We’ve seen you in a lot of comedies lately. Do you like the genre?
De Niro – I love it! There are less restrictions than in drama; you can take more risks, you can be the viilian. Here in Italy it’s great because you manage to mix drama with comedy. This is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to come back to Italy.
Giurato – You’ve always been considered a sex symbol. What do you think about love today?
De Niro – I think that love is love. When you get old you see and learn and believe that everything has an end, it’s fantastic when you truly love someone.
I Love Italian Everything 