![]() ![]() The film opens with Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a gifted gambler and bookie, being blown up by a car-bomb. Except this blood-spattered triangle of love and revenge isn’t set in some renaissance court, but in a modern equivalent – the neon and rhinestone baroque of a Vegas casino. Intense like a Jacobean tragedy, in the case of Casino. ![]() But the equation is fragile, combining as it does studio pride, critical and industry respect, and audience response to bewilderingly intense films in a bland era. His acknowledged artistry helps the studios feel like occasional patrons of the art they daily prostitute. Scorsese’s films rarely earn big money, but they’re as expensive to make as those that do. It’s a tall order, like asking an athlete to break a record on every outing. But what do we expect when a new Scorsese is unveiled, as Casino was on the final night of the London Film Festival? Passionate commitment to a subject, consummate technical mastery, a masterpiece amid the mediocrity of routine Hollywood. What do we expect of a Scorsese film? We know what the young Scorsese learned to expect of a Powell and Pressburger or a King Vidor – intensity and rapture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |