“We make movies to entertain audiences. Audiences vote by seeing them; critics vote by writing about them; and then posterity takes its time to decide if they’re art - or not,” De Niro began.
He continued
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because of our government’s hostility towards art. The budget proposal, among its other draconian cuts to life-saving and life-enhancing programmes, eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For their own divisive political purposes, the administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programmes goes to rich liberal elites. This is what they now call an ‘alternative fact,’ but I call it bullshit.”
De Niro wasn't afraid to send himself up during the animated speech which also saw him reference the President's response to Meryl Streep's impassioned words while accepting her Golden Globe honour in January.
“By being here tonight, you are supporting arts for everyone,” he continued. “You’re supporting the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the great body of work of Marty Scorsese and Barry Levinson, the dumb-ass comedies of Robert De Niro, the ‘overrated performances of Meryl Streep’ and your own taste and needs.”
The career honour was presented to De Niro by longtime collaborator Scorsese who is working with the actor again on upcoming mob drama The Irishman alongside Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.
Previous recipients of the award - named after silent movie icon Charlie Chaplin who returned from US exile to accept in 1972 - include Scorsese himself as well as Streep, Alfred Hitchcock, Diane Keaton, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Morgan Freeman.
/The Independent/
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