Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. Page #3

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and him painting me.

I was annoyed, I remember,

that I had to do it that day.

I felt everybody else

was out playing.

But I remember he

kind of dressed me,

put something on me...

a hat...and he'd

just work away.

And as I got older, I was--

and I really learned more

about his work,

I was proud that he chose me

to be one of them because

it wasn't just like

anybody could sit down.

STORR:
Robert De Niro's

way of painting...

he was not

an abstract painter.

He was a still-life painter.

He was a landscape painter.

He was a figure painter.

De Niro entered into

still-life painting

at a point where it probably was

thought by many people

as an unexciting option.

But what he managed to do was

to find a way to paint set-ups

that were so straightforward

and so without pretension

that all you thought about was,

"How did he actually do that?"

They don't look like

anybody else's still-life.

I can't name an artist

that they look like,

even though I have seen

an awful lot of paintings.

KELLY:
De Niro was influenced by

the masters and he had a keen

interest, especially,

in the French avant-garde--

Georges Rouault...

Pierre Bonnard...

Andre Derain...

Henri Matisse...

STORR:
Now, if you take

Matisse as a model,

Matisse made a very

famous painting

"Luxe, Calme et Volupte"--

luxuriousness, calm,

and voluptuousness.

And there's a lot of that

in De Niro, basically.

He paints his pleasure.

De NIRO, SR., SINGING:

Bundle up your cares and woe,

here I go, singin' low

Bye, Bye, Blackbird

[Continues singing in French]

Au revoir

[Continues humming tune]

KRESCH:
Bob was very funny.

He would be walking along

and he'd say something,

and it would be

hilarious, you know?

ELLIS:
I knew him to be

this kind of energetic,

dazzling guy

with a great sense of humor.

DRENA De NIRO:

He loved music.

He'd have a song that he

became fixated on,

and he wouldn't be able

to hear it enough

and he'd dance and sing.

KRESCH:
He liked

going to parties.

Bob loved to dance, and he

was very good at that time.

I think it was called the

Jitterbug or the Lindy Hop.

Very fast on his feet.

I remember he loved Paris.

He always had a real

thing for Paris.

KRESCH:
He taught

himself French.

He didn't go to any classes.

So that he wrote poetry.

We used to go to

foreign films.

And, of course, Greta Garbo.

He was insane

about Greta Garbo.

Give me a whiskey.

Ginger ale on the side.

And don't be stingy, baby.

KELLY:
A subject that De Niro

returned to repeatedly

was Greta Garbo,

specifically in her role

as Anna Christie.

His depictions of her are

always that first scene

in the bar when she delivers

her famous first line.

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