De Niro
A Life
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4.8 • 8개의 평가
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- US$7.99
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REMARKABLE BIOGRAPHY OF AN ICON
There's little debate that Robert De Niro is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, screen actors of his generation, perhaps of all time. His work, particularly in the first 20 years of his career, is unparalleled. Mean Streets, the Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, the Deer Hunter, and Raging Bull all dazzled moviegoers and critics alike, displaying a talent the likes of which had rarely--if ever--been seen. De Niro become known for his deep involvement in his characters, assuming that role completely into his own life, resulting in extraordinary, chameleonic performances.
Yet little is known about the off-screen De Niro--he is an intensely private man, whose rare public appearances are often marked by inarticulateness and palpable awkwardness. It can be almost painful to watch at times, in powerful contrast to his confident movie personae. In this elegant and compelling biography, bestselling writer Shawn Levy writes of these many De Niros--the characters and the man--seeking to understand the evolution of an actor who once dove deeply into his roles as if to hide his inner nature, and who now seemingly avoids acting challenges, taking roles which make few apparent demands on his overwhelming talent. Following De Niro's roots as the child of artists (his father, the abstract painter Robert De Niro Sr., was widely celebrated) who encouraged him from an early age to be independent of vision and spirit, to his intense schooling as an actor, the rise of his career, his marriages, his life as a father, restauranteur, and businessman, and, of course, his current movie career, Levy has written a biography that reads like a novel about a character whose inner turmoil takes him to heights of artistry. His many friendships with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Harvey Keitel, Shelley Winters, Francis Ford Coppola, among many others, are woven into this extraordinary portrait of DeNiro the man and the artist, also adding a depth of understanding not before seen.
Levy has had unprecedented access to De Niro's personal research and production materials, creating a new impression of the effort that went into the actor's legendary performances. The insights gained from DeNiro’s intense working habits shed new perspective on DeNiro’s thinking and portrayals and are wonderful to read. Levy also spoke to De Niro's collaborators and friends to depict De Niro's transition from an ambitious young man to a transfixing and enigmatic artist and cultural figure.
Shawn Levy has written a truly engaging, insightful, and entertaining portrait of one of the most wonderful film artists of our time, a book that is worthy of such a great talent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The famously laconic, chameleon actor, gets a respectful treatment by journalist and film critic Levy (Paul Newman: A Life). As the only son of New York bohemian artists who separated and left "Bobby" largely to his own devices, De Niro recognized at age 18 that if actors who weren't very good could make a living then "I can't do any worse than them." As a student of Stella Adler's Conservatory of Acting, the young De Niro grew serious about the m tier, learning "the value of application, self-scrutiny, doggedness," a system of self-discipline that would stick with him throughout his long career. De Niro cultivated important relationships early on, yet his most defining roles were under the direction of Martin Scorsese, his Italian New Yorker "alter ego." Their collaboration on such iconic films as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull allowed De Niro to explore and hone his considerable skill and range. Known for his "monomaniacal immersion" in his characters, such as the young Sicilian-speaking Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (for which he won his first Oscar), De Niro nonetheless created fewer memorable roles in recent years. While Levy calls his later career a "muddle," De Niro significantly helped revitalize the New York film world by establishing a studio in Tribeca and producing his own work. With no help from the publicity-wary actor himself, Levy does a decent, evenhanded job of delineating the career of this national treasure.
