Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman to open the 57th… | Little White Lies

Festivals

Mar­tin Scorsese’s The Irish­man to open the 57th New York Film Festival

29 Jul 2019

Words by Adam Woodward

Two men in suits sitting at a bar, glasses and bottle of alcohol on the table, framed photographs on the wall behind them.
Two men in suits sitting at a bar, glasses and bottle of alcohol on the table, framed photographs on the wall behind them.
The leg­endary director’s long-ges­tat­ing mob epic will final­ly be unveiled 27 September.

After months of spec­u­la­tion, the New York Film Fes­ti­val today announced that its forth­com­ing 57th edi­tion will kick off with the world pre­mière of Mar­tin Scorsese’s star-packed crime epic The Irish­man.

This con­tin­ues a long-run­ning tra­di­tion of the revered Amer­i­can auteur unveil­ing new work at his home film fes­ti­val, pre­sum­ably after declin­ing invi­ta­tions from oth­er more pres­ti­gious autumn fes­ti­vals, such as Venice and Toron­to. It’s cer­tain­ly a big coup for the NYFF – antic­i­pa­tion for the film couldn’t be high­er, with both the writer/​director and Net­flix remain­ing tight-lipped over the plot.

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What we do know is that The Irish­man reunites some­time Scors­ese reg­u­lars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Har­vey Kei­t­el, the for­mer play­ing noto­ri­ous labour union offi­cial and mob hit­man Frank Sheer­an, who is wide­ly believed to have been the man respon­si­ble for the mur­der of union boss Jim­my Hof­fa (played by Al Pacino).

It’s one of the gris­li­est and most intrigu­ing unsolved true crime cas­es in Amer­i­can his­to­ry, and the prospect of a film­mak­er of Scorsese’s stature tak­ing it on is tan­ta­lis­ing to say the least. Added to that, the screen­play has been adapt­ed from the acclaimed non­fic­tion book ​‘I Heard You Paint Hous­es’ by Charles Brandt, who also wrote Don­nie Brasco.

Group of men in suits and hats, some appear to be police officers, standing in a crowded indoor setting.

On select­ing the film for the festival’s cov­et­ed open­ing night slot, New York Film Fes­ti­val Direc­tor and Selec­tion Com­mit­tee Chair Kent Jones had this to say: ​“The Irish­man is so many things: rich, fun­ny, trou­bling, enter­tain­ing and, like all great movies, absolute­ly sin­gu­lar. It’s the work of mas­ters, made with a com­mand of the art of cin­e­ma that I’ve seen very rarely in my life­time, and it plays out at a lev­el of sub­tle­ty and human inti­ma­cy that tru­ly stunned me. All I can say is that the minute it was over my imme­di­ate reac­tion was that I want­ed to watch it all over again.” 

The Irish­man is set for release lat­er this year via Netflix.

The 57th New York Film Fes­ti­val runs 27 Sep­tem­ber to 13 Octo­ber. For more info vis­it film​linc​.org

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