April 29, 2026
SIFF, Festa Italiana, and Greg Olson Productions Present
MARTIN SCORSESE
MAESTRO OF CINEMA
The Irishman (2019) Martin Scorsese: Since Casino in 1995, Bob De Niro and I had wanted to make a film together. We tried to get interested in various projects, but nothing came together. Bob finally admitted to me, “I’d rather, with the time we have left, revisit that world that we feel very comfortable in.” Well, now I knew what he had in mind, because when he presented the idea to me he became emotional, and I realized that’s the key. Steve Zallian adapted the book that had inspired Bob. When I told Bob I was envisioning the film he didn’t ask me to explain. He knew that I felt the thing. I told him we would eliminate the complications of a major production, and get to the heart and soul of the movie. Over the years I’ve been trying to break free of narrative and tell stories in a different way, by emotional tone, making intuitive connections, almost improvisatory, then structuring that. Even the tone of the voiceover was important. Frank is stuck in a certain situation. You’re obligated to behave in a certain way and you realize you may have made a mistake. But you’ve got to go on, right? It’s about the feeling of being a human over 50, 60, 70, 80 years. What you may have done 40 years ago could almost have been done by another person, but it’s still you. What part of you did that, you know? Is it still there? Frank's in a position that he hadn’t expected, and it’s based on love, duty, loyalty and, ultimately, betrayal. How does he balance what he is as a human being with what he does with his life? HIs daughter Peggy, she watches him quietly and knows, just with looks. What I was trying to get without verbalizing it was that because Frank lived as he did, everyone around him, and Peggy, they all pay. Joe Pesci came out of retirement to do the film. He was resistant, but Bob De Niro talked to him. They have their own language, like the characters they’ve played together. Joe’s always pushing back and Bob is coming back and working him, working him. Ultimately, if Bob asks enough and he pushes enough, does that make sense? Let me put it this way: It would have to be comfortable for Pesci to make the film, you know? With Bob and Al Pacino there’s no saying “action” and “cut”—we just go. Around the dialogue as written they were able to play off each other, add or take away within the structure of the scene—and it was all truthful. We put everything in our hearts at this stage of our lives into The Irishman.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese Screenplay by: Steven Zillian from Charles Brandt’s book Cinematography by: Rodrigo Prieto Production Design by: Bob Shaw Edited by: Thelma Schoonmaker Music by: Robbie Robertson THE PLAYERS: Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno Ray Romano as Bill Bufalino Bobby Cannavale as Skinny Razor Anna Paquin as Peggy Sheeran Stephen Graham as Tony Pro
The song “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins goes back to the Catholic preaching I used to hear growing up: “Like a thief in the night, Death will come”—and "the still of the night" is when it happens. Now we’re there—at a certain age. The still of the night: it’s clandestine, it’s love, danger, everything. That was the movie, that song.
Stephanie Kurtzuba as Irene Sheeran
Thanks to Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Festa Italiana (Dennis Caldirola, Tony La Stella); film essay writer Tova Gannana (The New Yorker poet, film curator and teacher); film essay writer John Trafton (film professor and author), and Series Coordinator Kendal Gabel. Greg Olson Productions is sponsored by Inn at the Market.
Katherine Narducci as Carrie Bufalino
Jack Huston as Robert F. Kennedy
Jesse Plemons as Chuckie O’Brien