Interview: Robert de Niro and Nicholas Pileggi discuss their friendship, cooperation and the Alto Knights

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Like the topics in your new film The Alto knightsRobert de Niro and Nicholas Pileggi had decades of bond.

“I read a great piece that (Pileggi) had done in New York magazine about Little Italy” The Alto knights. “I actually said Marty (Scorsese) of him. I said: ‘You have to read this thing. It’s great.’ God, that was more than 60 years ago.

Pileggi has made a career by Mob Tales, legendary scorsese scripts and the books on which they are based on his debut screen book from the 1990s from the years Goodfellaswhat earned him an Oscar nomination.

“I am only fascinated by the topic and have written about it since I was a journalist at The Associated Press,” he says.

The seeds of their latest cooperation, The Alto Ritter, dates from 1974 and serves as proof of how perseverance is required to bring a story to the screen.

“We had already told the story about the young mob, and we all know how the Mob Las Vegas lost, was sitting at a billions of dollars and screwing it up,” says Pileggi. “” (The Alto knights) was the end of how it all Ended, and I thought Frank Costello and Vito Genovese tell this story. “

What is the Alto knights about?

Frank Costello was born on January 26, 1891 and moved to the United States from Italy in 1937 when his good friend Vito Genovese fled from the country, after a double murder.

The Alto knights Follows the period in which Vito returns to the United States and wants to recapture its title.

Robert de Niro when he joins the Alto Knights

De Niro takes on the role of Frank and Vito in The Alto knightsAnd said to me: “We both felt that I should play Costello, but who would play Vito?”

The search for Vito was cut briefly when producer Irwin Winkler suggested that de Niro play both roles.

“I said, let me think about it,” says de Niro. “I wanted to work with everyone again. I knew her for so long and worked with everyone so often that it was like an old week of home.”

“I definitely wanted to do it and would still have done it, but the fact that Irwin has applied this has it more tempting on many levels and more of a justification,” he continues. “I said, yes, okay, I’ll do it.”

Robert de Niro and Nicholas Pileggi on the Alto Ritters

“I noticed that it was called Wise people At that time “de Niro” (Vito) had a social club called “The Alto Knights”. (Nick) and I had a meeting. I said, “Where did you get this place from, the Alto Ritter? When I was a child, I hung around there. ‘”

Nicholas Pileggi had his own connection to the social club, which was taken over by Genovese in the 1950s.

“I passed all the time and knew it because I was a reporter who covered this area,” says Pileggi. “Bob had a picture … (turned to de niro). They had a picture of this club as a 16-year-old child.”

The two memories and Pileggi said: “We both had a personal knowledge of the neighborhood. I knew the club. I knew the neighborhood. Bob grew up there as a child, so we both know this world a little and we wrote about it or came into films about organized crimes in this world.”

Robert de Niro played two roles in the Alto Knights

When de Niro stood on the set, he knew that he wanted someone to set lines while filming.

“What became clear to me was that I couldn’t just do it with someone who read lines to me,” he says. “The other mob characters have already been occupied, so I interviewed some of them to see who the other actor would be the other actor to me. There was an actor who (Joe) played Profaci named Joe Bacino. Joe learned the two scenes and we worked until two weeks before we can shoot them.

Nicholas Pileggi discusses the language of the Alto knights

Having the perfect actor is not enough without the perfect script. The Alto knights Has tons of rhythmic dialogue that is inspired by the pattern of people in this world.

“I try to get the original language as close as possible,” says Pileggi. “Many of these things will later testify to court or court files. The FBI has recordings of many organized crime boys, which are therefore talking.

Robert de Niro and Nicholas Pileggi about the cooperation of the Alto Knights

The Alto knights If a decision that came during the film, with Pileggi reveals: “Sometimes the script works perfectly, but suddenly the director sees something that the screenwriter may not see. Or an actor could see something and say:” Wait a minute of what this scene opens in front of this scene when he opened up when opening the copacabana? “

As de Niro mentioned, telling this story is a return for the crew. Ideas jumped around with so many brilliant people on the set.

“We shot this two years ago,” says de Niro. “The time we had because of the strike and because of I don’t know whether Covid had affected us-but the strike and then at a time when Warner Brothers was the best time, Barry and Nick and Irwin and I to a certain extent to look at the versions and to revise Barry, some of the trains that improved with the cut and the film.”

Pileggi adds: “It is an orchestra. There are none one Instrument.”

Nicholas Pilggi on the kefauver hearing in the Alto Ritters

One of The Alto knights“Most gripping moments are drawn directly from real life, where Frank Costello went to the intergovernmental trade in front of the special committee of the US Senate in front of the US special committee.

Pileggi cuts like a sports game by editor Douglas Crise and reveals what makes the moment so alive and why he had to add it to his script.

“It is an astonishing thing and it happens in real time in real life,” says Pileggi. “You can’t improve the reality of this moment. I think that makes this film so close. It is about as close to the truth as you can get it, and that’s exactly what people see, I think. They will see how it really happened.”

Nicholas Pilggi about stories that he would like to tell next

When asked what stories he would like to tell next, Pileggi giggles and says: “Well, I don’t know if I will publish that.”

But there is a moment of The Alto knights That still thinks.

“The business in the film in which you (to de niro) get the divorce from your wife … Vito Genovese. That actually happened,” says Pileggi. “I have all of these court files.

When will the Alto knights be released?

The Alto Knights will hit the cinemas on March 21, 2025.