1 week Ago By RFI
Veteran film star Robert de Niro will receive an honorary Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival which starts on 13 May. "I have very strong feelings about the Cannes Festival," said the 81-year-old American. "Especially today, when so many things in the world separate us, Cannes brings us together.
It's like coming home." Fourteen years after chairing the festival's jury in 2011, the actor, director and producer will be feted for Oscar-winning roles over 60 years in classic films such as Raging Bull, Godfather II and Taxi Driver, which claimed the Palme d'Or in 1976. "There are faces that stand in for the 7th art and lines that leave an indelible mark on cinephilia," said t he organisers.
De Niro, who was born in New York, first came to prominence in the films of Brian De Palma in the late 1960s. His artistic partnership with fellow New Yorker Martin Scorsese has passed into cinema legend spawning performances as the conflicted boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull and the psychotic ex-marine Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. "From petty thug to mafioso, De Niro never ceased to lend his natural authority to Italian-American mafia figures," said the festival organisers.
In 2002, De Niro founded the TriBeCa Film Festival as part of an effort to help reinvigorate a neglected district of New York. Read more on RFI English Read also: The double life of Abou Sangaré, undocumented migrant and Cannes award winner American director Todd Haynes to be awarded Carrosse d'Or at Cannes French actress Juliette Binoche to head Cannes Film Festival jury.
