Netflix推出史诗级巨制：《爱尔兰人》

马丁·斯科塞斯的黑帮影片《爱尔兰人》（The Irishman）终于在9月27日的纽约电影节上举办了全球首映式。

这部史诗级的电影长达三个半小时，其面向媒体和行业人士的首映式于上午9点在林肯中心的爱丽斯杜莉厅举行。之后，斯科塞斯与演员罗伯特·德尼罗、阿尔·帕西诺和乔·佩西以及制片人艾玛·提灵格·科斯科夫和简·罗森萨尔登上了舞台。

这部由Netflix出资拍摄的电影改编自查尔斯·布兰特的纪实小说《听说你刷房子了》（I Heard You Paint Houses），讲述了弗兰克·谢兰（德尼罗饰）充满暴力的漫长人生。他是一位退伍军人，后来变为了一名打手，既肩负着作为一名卡车司机公会官员的职责，又要处理好与布法利诺犯罪家族的关系。在其一生中，谢兰与无数黑手党成员和政府官员都有交集，并与黑帮老大罗塞尔·布法利诺（佩西饰）和劳工领袖吉米·霍法（帕西诺饰）成为了密友，但霍法因为卷入可疑事件而不知去向。

斯科塞斯在讨论《爱尔兰人》其角色周期性的暴力和生活中突如其来的打击时表示，“他们所处的就是这样一个时代。他们都是人。[弗兰克]并非是一个精神病人。他也有自己的感受，而内心也会受伤……他也遇到过道德冲突，因为他本质上是个好人——然而他不得不面对现实生活。一个好人在经历了这一切之后该如何面对自己呢？”

作为一部横跨50年的史诗级黑手党电影，《爱尔兰人》的荧幕之路始于10多年前。

德尼罗和斯科塞斯时美国电影史上成果最为丰硕的演员-导演阵容之一，自1973年《穷街陋巷》（Mean Streets）上映以来合作了9部电影，但他们自《赌城风云》（Casino，1995年）之后就再也没有聚首过，倒是一直在探讨改变唐·温斯洛的惊悚小说《弗兰基·摩欣的冬天》（The Winter of Frankie Machine），只不过一直未能实现。《驱魔人》（The Exorcist）的导演威廉·福瑞德金据悉正在对该小说进行改编。

此前，有人曾经向德尼罗推荐了查尔斯·布兰特2004年的回忆录《我听说你刷房子了》，作者是前杀人案件侦探兼检察官。德尼罗最终将该书推荐给了斯科塞斯。导演回忆说：“可以看得出来，德尼罗对这个角色非常感兴趣。我们没有必要再说什么。”

随着这对搭档共同制作《我听说你刷房子了》，他们在为这部史诗级黑帮电影筹资时遇到了困难，因为该片需要使用昂贵的去老化特效，这样，这些资深演员便可以横跨数十年扮演不同年龄段的角色。在电影中，德尼罗所扮演的角色在最年轻的时候约为24岁，然后一直到80岁。

斯科塞斯回忆说：“多年来，我们都没有找到资金支持，毫无办法。最终，是[Netflix内容业务负责人]泰德·萨兰朵斯给我们出了钱。”Netflix拿出了1.6亿美元的预算，当时没有一家公司愿意出资。此外，斯科塞斯称，这家视频流公司并未给他的电影制作设定多少限制。

这位总监回忆说：“为了配合我们的工作，他们花了很多心思，而且丝毫没有干涉。有时候也会提出意见，但我们并没有一一回复。”

整个制作过程异常紧张忙碌，提灵格·科斯科夫回忆道，在108天的拍摄期间，《爱尔兰人》团队在117个场地拍摄了309个场景，有时候一天涉及两到三个场地的拍摄。罗森塔尔说，包括共计9台摄像机（其中一个被斯科塞斯称为“三眼怪兽”）在内的大量设备并没有拖慢他们的步伐，但这对于携带这些设备的成员来说并不是件轻松的事情。

但这些演员对于其角色尤为痴迷，尤其是帕西诺，他散步的时候都戴着耳机，通过聆听那些过去的演讲音频来揣摩角色。斯科塞斯在回忆帕西诺困惑的神情时说：“你的耳机里放的是吉米·霍发的声音，我还以为是音乐。”帕西诺耸了耸肩回答道：“我为什么要告诉他们我听的是什么？”

在与Netflix合作时，斯科塞斯经常思考当前看电影体验的波动状态。他说：“我觉得这是一个十分有趣的组合，因为人们会根据电影的内容来权衡哪些电影应该在家里看，以及哪些上电影院看，或者二者兼而有之。我们正处于一个不断变化的超凡时代。”

但最终，斯科塞斯和德尼罗坚信，不管他们与哪家影业公司合作，《爱尔兰人》都会有其受众。他说：“最终，说到这部影片，我们觉得这是一部必须制作的电影，哪怕只是为了实现我们自己的理想。”

一位观众会员曾经要求登台的几位对《爱尔兰人》与当代政治之间的关系进行评价，但斯科塞斯基本上都拒绝将其与当前的任何类似情景进行对比。

他说：“这与权力有关。权力能够消除一切……而且，就像人们知道的那样，人们会想尽一切办法来保留这一权力。”（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

Martin Scorsese’s organized-crime opus The Irishman finally made its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 27.

Following a media-and-industry screening of the three-and-a-half hour epic that kicked off at 9 a.m. at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Scorsese took the stage with actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, and producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Jane Rosenthal.

The Netflix film, adapted from Charles Brandt’s nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses, charts the long, violent life of one Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a military veteran-turned-hitman who balanced responsibilities as a Teamsters official with ties to the Bufalino crime family. Throughout the ages, Sheeran intersects with countless mafiosi and public officials, forming close friendships with mob boss Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and labor leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino)—the latter of whom disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

“It’s the life they were in,” said Scorsese, discussing the cyclical violence and sudden brutality of life for his characters in The Irishman. “They’re human beings. [Frank’s] not a psychotic. He has feelings, and he hurts inside... There’s a moral conflict, because he’s basically a good man—yet he has to go through with it. How does a good man live with themselves after that?”

Perhaps fittingly for a mob epic spanning 50 years, The Irishman’s path to the big screen started over a decade ago.

De Niro and Scorsese have enjoyed one of the most fruitful actor-director collaborations in American cinema history, teaming on nine feature films since 1973, when Mean Streets was released. But they hadn’t worked together since Casino (1995), and kicking around the idea of adapting Don Winslow’s thriller novel The Winter of Frankie Machine wasn’t leading anywhere concrete (The Exorcist director William Friedkin is now said to be working on an adaptation).

De Niro had been previously brought Charles Brandt’s 2004 memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, written by a former homicide investigator and prosecutor, and eventually passed the book onto Scorsese. “I could see he was very strongly attached to the character,” recalls the director. “We didn’t have to say much.”

As the pair worked to develop I Heard You Paint Houses, they struggled to secure funding for their mob epic, which require expensive de-aging effects so that the veteran actors could play their characters across decades. De Niro’s protagonist is, at his youngest, around 24, with the film following his life until he’s 80.

“We couldn’t get the backing—there was no way—for years,” recalled Scorsese. “Ultimately, it was [Netflix content chief] Ted Sarandos.” Netflix put up the $160 million budget, which no other studio at that time was willing to do. What’s more, Scorsese said the streamer allowed him to operate with few constraints.

“They were creatively attuned to us,” recalled the director. “There was no interference. There were notes at times, and we addressed them—or not.”

Production was hectic; across the 108-day shoot, recalled Tillinger Koskoff, The Irishman team shot 309 scenes in 117 locations, with sometimes two or three location moves a day. The extensive equipment, including a total of nine cameras (one of which Scorsese dubbed “a three-eyed monster”), didn’t slow them down, said Rosenthal, but it wasn’t exactly a light load for crew to carry either.

But the actors were so deeply entrenched in their characters that time flew. Pacino, especially, took to walking around set with headphones in, getting into character by listening to audio files of old speeches. “You had Jimmy Hoffa’s voice in your ear on set,” remembered Scorsese, addressing a bemused-looking Pacino. “I thought it was music!” Pacino replied, shrugging, “Why should I tell them what I’m listening to?”

In working with Netflix, Scorsese often mulled the fluctuating state of the moviegoing experience. “It was an interesting hybrid, I guess, in a way how you balance between what a film is and what is viewed at home and in a theater or both,” he said. “We are in an extraordinary time of change.”

But ultimately, Scorsese and De Niro knew The Irishman would find an audience, no matter which studio they partnered with. “When it comes down to it, ultimately,” he added, “we felt the picture had to be made. For ourselves, really.”

Though an audience member asked those on stage to comment on The Irishman’s connection to modern politics, Scorsese largely declined to comment on any present-day parallels.

“It’s all about power,” he offered. “Power erases everything else... And, as you know, they’ll do anything to keep the power.”