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De Niro: A Life, by Shawn Levy
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REMARKABLE BIOGRAPHY OF AN ICON
There’s little debate that Robert De Niro is one of the greatest screen actors of his generation, perhaps of all time--if not, in fact, the greatest. 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 became 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.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #1179981 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-27
- Released on: 2015-10-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.25" w x 5.25" l, .97 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 608 pages
Review
“[A] thorough, measured, fact-filled, 600-page, movie-by-movie, girlfriend-by-girlfriend study that is right up a movie geek’s alley.” –New York Times Book Review
"An impressive biography that will surely stand as the definitive De Niro volume." –Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“‘De Niro' is impressive, fair-minded, and doesn't shrink from tough questions....[It’s] jam-packed with insight, anecdotes, and trivia about [De Niro’s] films.” –Christian Science Monitor
“De Niro: A Life is likely as close as anyone can get to figuring out just who the star of “Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull” is in private, and the author’s respectful tone and preference for art over scandal would likely please the book’s subject…[A]n addictive read.” –The Oregonian
“[A] well-researched biography.... Making good use of the scripts, working notes, and a copious collection of props and clothing in the De Niro archive at the University of Texas in Austin, Levy creates a portrait of a private man who seems to depend on the creation of characters to sustain himself.” –Washington Post
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
SHAWN LEVY is the author of six previous books, including the New York Times bestsellers Rat Pack Confidential and Paul Newman: A Life. He served as film critic of The Oregonian from 1997 to 2012 and is a former senior editor of American Film and a former associate editor of Box Office. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Independent, Film Comment, Movieline, and Sight and Sound, among many other publications. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
What Does De Niro Eat for Breakfast? You Won't Find Out Here !!
By reteach
At an early stage in his career, Robert De Niro, Jr wondered why anyone would be interested in his life, specifically what he had for breakfast. That wonderment partially explains why he has never been particularly forthcoming through interviews or public appearances about his personal life. Though this book, by its title ,purports to be a biography of the man it is more accurate to say that it is an analysis of an actor and his methodology in his career. While it is true that some of the personal aspects of his life are interspersed or included tangentially in the story, the basic skeleton of the work is how De Niro researched and prepared for the major roles of his early career.
At one point in the book a director is said to have over 3000 hours of footage to edit to make a cogent movie that fits within the attention span of the audience and production costs of the studio—one that is about 2 to 2 and 1?2 hours long. Well, the author had copious amounts of information from which to draw a cogent book that does the same and at 551 pages it could have been edited even more and been easier to read. There is a great deal of overlap and repetition. Though De Niro’s career took off with his appearance in Godfather Part ii, released in 1974, he had been studying and acting in New York long before that. Yet, the work he did in the 1990’s does not appear until well past the halfway mark of the book. Granted, by the author’s and many critics’ views his best work was done in the late 70’s through the 80’s and he seems to have given up digging deeply into his talents in movie choices. Interestingly enough it is the work done in these later years that has been most universally embraced by audiences, nationally and internationally. Most especially the Focker movies have, with Shark Tale , brought in the most money combined of any of his previous work.
The bottom line for me about this book, which I read primarily because Bobby, as he is called by friends and family, and I are of an age and we grew up in the same general area of Manhattan. I left around the time he went off to Italy at 19 and did not return. Actually, I’d forgotten how small and discreet the neighborhoods were in the City of our youth. I lived in Chelsea, only 7 blocks from his 14th St neighborhood, but by ethnicity and culture it might as well have been 7 miles or more. Although he came to believe that it wasn’t important to his fans what school he went to or what his early life had been like I was curious to see what similarities there may have been between us before we grew up and became our adult selves. This book gave me none of that but then again, perhaps it did. Scorcese grew up about 7 blocks south of 14th around the same time in Little Italy and, as the book points out, there was little in common between their lives either—De Niro lived a more Bohemian life as the son of artists than either of the two of us, Martin or I. That speaks to the truth of the big metropolis known as New York City—it is a place of little neighborhoods which in another geographic area would produce little towns very different from each other though located fairly closely.
Despite this lack of fulfilling my original expectations of content, it was not very far into the book that I didn’t care that this was not a tell all, birth to old age, saga of one famous man’s life. The story of how movies come to be, how they are written, the people whose hands they pass through, the method of casting, the personalities involved in the release of the final product was fascinating. As mentioned earlier, some of the movies were described endlessly it seemed, but the minute detail taken by De Niro to produce his role in each was remarkable.
The names of other actors with whom he played on stage,or in the movies brought back to mind some who have died or whose careers have died. Through the years as women’s roles needed to be cast the roll-call of actresses was telling. Though some, such as Meryl Streep appeared very early on, as in the Deer Hunter, and remained right into the 21 century as possibilities in his work, others came and within a few years were gone from the lists for consideration. Yet, Harvey Keitel and other male actors lasted for decades. Certainly supports the claim that males are considered physically attractive much longer than females when it comes to show business.
Bottom line, the book is too long, it isn’t a biography, the material does not result from any input from De Niro or anyone truly close to him, as stated in the acknowledgements at the end. You will NOT find out what he eats for breakfast, though you will learn what he likes to drink,that he is something of a womanizer, that he has a few children, he’s made lots of money in real estate, much like his mother and that his father was a well known, somewhat well respected artist who never made a great deal of money. He can be incredibly supportive and encouraging and generous to his costars. He can also stiff a carpenter for work he did, stiff a guy at lunch for the tab and stiff a nanny of overtime hours—he’s cheap. He can be abrasive and carry a grudge. But, he can be moved to tears. He coined the name Tribeca for a warehouse neighborhood in lower Manhattan, made it the new costly Greenwich Village and sued a guy in London who used TriBeCa in the name of his bar. ( Funny, growing up in NY the only SoHo I ever heard of was in London and my grandmother who would be over 125 now lived on Houston in her youth.)
Two other comments in the book explain for me why the focus is not biographical for the most part; a fellow working on Backdraft with him told a journalist “ to know him as a person is grabbing at smoke. He came to the set and unknown quality and, on a personal level, he kind of left it that way.” “ He still protected his privacy zealously.”
With that kind of reserve, which from what little the book reveals, seems to extend even to those most close to him, there is much about Robert De Niro that only De Niro will ever know and in the long run that is fine. It is true of all of us and a public figure should not have to expose more that the rest of us to the world. If you can live with that and if you have a real interest in movie making , particularly De Niro movies, then this is the book for you. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A Thorough and Effective Biography
By Jack de L.A.
In the film "Taxi Driver," Cybill Shepherd's character remarks that Travis Bickle is "...partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction." The same could be said for Robert De Niro, the man who played Travis. On the one hand, De Niro is an international icon who has appeared in almost 100 feature films. On the other, De Niro is a profoundly private celebrity who has consistently and vehemently shunned the spotlight when he's not on set. In "De Niro: A Life," author Shawn Levy provides readers with excellent insight into the background, career, and personal life of one of the greatest and most enigmatic actors of all time.
Because De Niro is renowned for being a physical, linguistic, and emotional chameleon on screen, the best portions of the book deal with De Niro's preparations for his most memorable roles. Whether he was learning to speak Sicilian for "The Godfather Part II," learning to play the saxophone for "New York, New York," or learning to box for "Raging Bull," De Niro went to incredible lengths to transform himself into the characters he was portraying. Levy does a terrific job of capturing the personal, physical, and psychological contortions De Niro subjected himself to while creating his litany of unforgettable characters.
While Levy is effective at capturing De Niro's early career triumphs, Levy is also candid when critiquing De Niro's more recent work. It's no secret that, since the late 1990s, the quality of De Niro's work has diminished substantially (even as the quantity of his films has increased). Confronting this issue head-on, Levy explores De Niro's recent career missteps with a perfect balance of frankness and fairness.
If there's one thing that's missing from "De Niro: A Life," it's an examination of whether De Niro's more extreme roles had a personal impact on him. Throughout the course of his career, De Niro has portrayed a myriad of pathological criminals. It would be interesting to know if playing a psychopathic stalker in "Cape Fear" or a multiple rapist in "Once Upon A Time In America" or a deranged angel of death in "Taxi Driver" took a visceral toll on De Niro. Unfortunately, because De Niro refused to collaborate with Levy on the book, this subject goes unexplored.
The bottom line: "De Niro: A Life" is a thorough, intriguing, well-written, and smartly paced read. There's plenty of information in the book about De Niro's personal life, philanthropic work, box-office numbers, business ventures, and family, but the book is at its best when it focuses on the actor's most enduring quality: his profound aptitude for disappearing into the characters he's portraying and rendering unforgettable cinematic performances.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A classy, tasteful, and thought provoking look at one of our greatest living actors!
By E. Talerico
What Mr. Levy should be applauded for (which is my sideways way of saying you should buy, and read this book) is to create a classy, tasteful, and thought provoking look at one of our greatest living actors.
This book is a well though out overview of Mr. De Niro's life, with a close and detailed look at his work and his creative process. It is a book for artists, aspiring actors, and people wanting more insight into the work than into the person.
Don't get me wrong, the biographical content is excellent, well researched and well written too!
If you are looking for a tawdry, expository book about Mr. De Niro, this is not it.
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