AUSTIN, Texas — Robert De Niro wasn’t too happy when he heard that Marlon Brando’s personally annotated “Godfather” script was for sale on eBay. How could such an important cultural relic, created by an actor who is a true artist, be as easily bidden as his old pinball machine or his mug of Las Vegas coffee?
This was around 2006 and De Niro was looking for a place to donate the vast collection of props, costumes, scripts, letters and memorabilia he had amassed over his 60-year career. He didn’t want the script notes for “Taxi Driver” to deteriorate in a stranger’s closet in Des Moines. Therefore, an archivist and staff looked after each piece, including his red boxing glove and leopard, and sought out a place where it could be preserved. A printed robe he wore as Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull” and a page of letters he and “Last Tycoon” director Elia Kazan wrote to each other.
“I wanted to keep it for my kids and I wanted to keep it all together. Harry Ransom Center Some of his archives are on display at the University of Texas at Austin. He was in town last month for a gala celebrating his 65th anniversary of the show and his center Ransom. Leonard Martin Officiating the ceremony, Meryl Streep flew to Texas to honor her longtime friend and colleague with a speech.
“I don’t know if you can find out the secrets of his powers and what he does if you’re exploring there,” Streep said in a speech. , born of what he does not say.”
Texas may seem like the odd home of De Niro’s two Academy Awards and personal photography, but he wants an institution that’s easily accessible to students, researchers, and film enthusiasts around the world. I was there. In his speech that night, he said: It was going to be either a ransom center or an episode of Hoarders. “
The Center houses the works of acting teachers Stella Adler, Samuel Beckett, TS Elliott, Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, Frida Kahlo, and others. In his speech, De Niro said he chose the center because of the company his archives belong to. here? ‘”
The ‘Robert De Niro Papers’ show runs through January, part Of the 537 boxes, 601 bound books and 147 folders contain items donated by De Niro. Several treasures are on display, with insights from De Niro and film curator Steve Wilson.
Initial photo and resume
A very nicely cut black and white photo of a young De Niro is accompanied by one of his early acting resumes back when his movie roles had names like Lead of the Leads. De Niro said he remembered typing those resumes and when I asked if I was exaggerating anything, he said: Maybe I said I was in a play, or a role in a play, but I just did a scene. According to Wilson, the resume helped the archivist date several items from early in his career, when he went to work on stage and in dinner theater. “The existence of these resumes was really interesting to me,” Wilson said. “He probably had his résumé padding out. You might say, for example, that he was in a touring play, but we know he played a scene in Stella, Adler, etc. increase.”
“Mean Streets” Fedora
The hat and the role marked the beginning of one of the most enduring and powerful collaborations in cinema between De Niro and director Martin Scorsese. Years later, Scorsese told New York Magazine that when the actor read for the role of Johnny Boy, neighborhood punk in this brown fedora, he knew De Niro was the man. In his 1973 review of the film in The Times, Vincent Canby wrote, “The look, the language, and the acting are so precise, selfless and directly evocative.” De Niro’s performance (Harvey Keitel, top left, and opposite David Proval) and his now-iconic hat help create a visceral realism that still feels raw in the face almost 50 years later. “I used to wear that hat when I was a kid,” De Niro told me when I asked where it came from. “I just liked it.” Johnny When it came time to audition for Boy, he said he felt it suited the character. I did,” Wilson said. “It was kind of an arsenal.”
License from “Taxi Driver”
In preparation for his role as Travis Bickle in 1976, De Niro spent just over a week driving a real cab. This was shortly after he won an Academy Award for ‘The Godfather Part II’ and one of his passengers recognized him and commented: It must be especially hard for an actor If the Oscar winner was driving taxis trying to make money. Licensing is another part of the collection that illuminates his dedication to his character and the lengths he has gone to to live a completely different life. is.
The exhibition also includes one of De Niro’s annotated “Taxi Driver” scripts, which opens to a page where Bickle looks into a mirror. Actions are simply written as: he sees nothing but himself. ‘ Just below it, De Niro wrote in blue ink, ‘Something like a mirror here? Of course, that “mirror thing” is “are you talking to me‘ It’s a moment of improvisation that has become a hallmark of his career. College-age kids still yell that line when De Niro is out in public. Regarding the license, the moment Wilson first saw it, “I knew immediately that this was archival footage. It speaks to his process and says it all. It’s a great piece.”
“Deer Hunter” Military Dog Tag
“I can’t remember if I wore them for the entire production. In his 1978 film directed by Michael Cimino, De Niro recounts his ID worn by his character Mike, about a group of friends in a steel mill town in Pennsylvania. In addition to dog tags, the archives include medical records of actual Vietnam veterans, articles on “reverting veterinary syndrome” (now known as his PTSD), and details he took of specific regional dialects in Pennsylvania. De Niro’s preparatory work is shown, including notes. origin character. (Example: “these things” and “those things” can be used interchangeably.)
“I think this is where the archive really starts,” Wilson said. “From “The Deer Hunter” onwards, the amount of research material on a particular film increases significantly. Around 1979 or his 1980, he got serious about keeping things going. ” When the dog tags arrived, Wilson found them covered in plastic. In fact, it was to prevent the metal from making a noise to warn the enemy. By the time the dog tags arrived in Austin, the plastic had turned yellow and had leached liquid, so the archivists removed the rotting material and re-cased them to keep the objects true to their original shape. I got
“Raging Bull” Annotated Script
Like most of the scripts in the collection, De Niro’s “Raging Bull” draft, dated “2-1-79”, revised by “MS and RDN” (director and actors) is covered in handwritten notes. The heavy version comes in a brown leather folder. Wilson said that some of the scripts “seemed to have their own personality”, and in the pocket of the folder was a letter from De Niro’s character’s real-life wife, Vicky LaMotta, to De Niro. He said a note was included.
The script is displayed in a glass case next to writer Paul Schrader’s hand-drawn scene outlines scribbled on a yellow legal pad. Several writers were credited on the film, but De Niro and Scorsese went out together for a few days to work on the final draft before production began. De Niro said they headed for the Caribbean. We worked on the script and got it in the right place. We worked on the characters. “
Notes throughout the script page are difficult to decipher. When De Niro walked away for a while, he overheard his little daughter telling Wilson that his father’s handwriting was so bad that he couldn’t believe he used the same alphabet as everyone else. Did. To decipher De Niro’s career, his technique, the mysteries of his process, one script, his notebooks, costume choices and scribbled napkins, film enthusiasts and researchers alike set foot in Ransom’s Center. You probably won’t stop carrying it. All at once.