[Commlist] New book: Robert De Niro: From Screenplay to Screen Performance

**

*New book from Palgrave Macmillan, August 2020:*

Danish Television Drama: Global Lessons from a Small Nation 
<https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030407971>

Eds. Anne Marit Waade, Eva Novrup Redvall and Pia Majbritt Jensen

**

*New book: Robert De Niro: From Screenplay to Screen Performance*

By Adam Ganz and Steven Price

We are delighted to announce that the latest book in the Palgrave 
Studies in Screenwriting series, *Robert De Niro: From Screenplay to 
Screen Performance*, is now published.

The book is the first critical study to examine how Robert De Niroworks 
with screenplays to imagine, prepare and denote his performance. The 
book is based on archival research at the Harry Ransom Center at the 
University of Texas at Austin.There are chapters on the Robert De Niro 
Archive, the screenplay as a boundary object and De Niro's influences 
and ideas of performance. Particular films looked at in detail include 
/Taxi Driver/, /The Last Tycoon/,/  New York New York, Raging Bull The 
King of Comedy/,/The Untouchables/, and /Goodfellas./The book also 
discusses /The Irishman/and De Niro's ethics of performance.

In categorising the various ways in which De Niro works with a 
screenplay, thebook re-examinesthe relationship between actor and text. 
This book considers the screenplay as above all a working document and a 
material object, present at every stage of the filmmaking process. The 
working screenplay goes through various iterations in development and 
exists in many versions on set, each adapted and personalised for the 
specific use of the individual and their role. As the archive reveals, 
nobody works more closely with the script than the actor, and no actor 
works more on a script than De Niro.

Table of content:

Introduction

The Robert De Niro Archive and the Screenplay as a Boundary Object

Influences and Ideas of Performance

Taxi Driver

The Last Tycoon

Improv(e)

Character

Conclusion

Endorsements:

Professor David Bordwell, Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies, 
Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin–Madison says 
of the book:

"For someone famous for playing inarticulate characters, Robert De Niro 
here stands revealed as a probing, subtle reader of the screenplays he 
inhabits. With unprecedented access to De Niro’s personal scripts 
for/Taxi Driver/ and other classics, Ganz and Price show how he ponders 
a role—assembling clippings and video notes, researching costumes and 
period details, jotting down emotional chords that will blossom into 
precise expressions, tonalities, and gestures. More broadly, /Robert De 
Niro at Work/ demands that we rethink how profoundly an actor’s craft 
shapes the dynamics of screenwriting practice. This plunge into the 
creative process, deeply informed by a historical awareness of acting 
traditions, will be of keen interest to aspiring filmmakers and 
performers. Not least, film fans will gain a new respect for De Niro’s 
immense gifts."

Actor Anamaria Marinca gives this endorsement:

"In this intriguing new book, Adam Ganz and Steven Price document Robert 
De Niro writing to himself. Reading these intimate internal dialogues, 
we are reminded of the immense, unsatisfied thirst for illusion that is 
at the core of our being. The authors demonstrate a profound 
understanding of the process of acting. /Robert De Niro at Work/ is 
unique in placing the performer at the centre of the writing process and 
storytelling by capturing the physical and intellectual relation that 
actors have to the text, as well as the highly complex journey involved 
in making it their own."

For more on the book:https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030479596 
<https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030479596>

For more on Palgrave Studies in 
Screenwriting:https://www.palgrave.com/gb/series/14590 
<https://www.palgrave.com/gb/series/14590>

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