#Season: De Niro Vs Pacino – Round 1 @ Light House Cinema

De Niro or Pacino? Light House Cinema is asking the age-old question and helping you discover the answer by screening a selection of some of the greatest screen appearances by Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. April 26th to June 4th.

So get in the ring and prepare to get knocked out by some of the greatest films of all time. This season will consist of two rounds – the first focussing on the early part of their careers, and Round 2 coming at a later date, bringing us through the late 80’s and 90’s.

Who will win? That’s up to you to decide.

The Line-up

Mean Streets 35mm
Scorsese’s first foray into the criminal underworld and also his first collaboration with De Niro, Mean Streets is a visceral, morally astute crime drama about a small time gangster struggling with life on the streets of New York.

The Panic In Needle Park
A love story set among a group of young heroin addicts in New York, Jeffrey Schatzberg’s portrayal of the complexities of addiction is powerful and the film features an incredible breakout performance from Al Pacino in one of his earliest and darkest roles.

The Deer Hunter
Post-war trauma has rarely been addressed so powerfully than in Michael Cimino’s psychological drama about three young men drafted into the Vietnam war and how life changes for them and their entire community upon their return. With a star turn from De Niro, ably supported by Christopher Walken and John Cazale, don’t miss this rare opportunity to watch this chilling drama on the big screen.

Serpico
Al Pacino stars in Sidney Lumet’s masterful biopic of real-life New York cop, Frank Serpico, who refused to accept the rampant police corruption around him – instead going undercover to expose the corrupt dealings within the police force. A moral drama which feels as relevant today as it ever did, Serpico is a masterpiece of American New Wave cinema.

Raging Bull
Perhaps the greatest boxing movie of all time and certainly the most beautiful one, Martin Scorsese’s monochrome odyssey follows promising young fighter Jake La Motta on his rise to fame as the attributes that make him a great fighter threaten his life outside the sport.

Dog Day Afternoon
Another Sidney Lumet classic, Dog Day Afternoon is based on the true story of an inexperienced criminal Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) who leads a bank robbery on a hot summer afternoon in New York. Set over the course of one day, Sonny’s surprising motivations behind the robbery are revealed, and his standoff with law enforcement moves toward its inevitable end. This classic heist film is one of Pacino’s greatest performances.

Once Upon a Time In America
The master, Sergio Leone, comes to Hollywood with this sweeping epic about a group of Jewish gangsters in New York, from childhood, through their glory years during prohibition, and their meeting again 35 years later. Light House Cinema will present the recently restored extended director’s cut.

Scarface
Written by Oliver Stone and directed by Brian De Palma, this colourful, Miami-set drama about a Cuban immigrant who rises to the top of a drug cartel has all the markings of a classic gangster drama but all the disco flamboyance of the early 80’s.

Come along to the Scarface  Miami Nights Party on May 7th for a Cuban themed cocktail menu and tunes followed by a late screening of the film.

The Mission 35mm
Roland Joffe’s classic film about missionaries trying to protect a remote South American Indian tribe from slavery not only features one of Ennio Morricone’s most beautiful scores but also one of Robert De Niro’s most powerful performances.

The King of Comedy
In one of Scorsese-De Niro’s more left-field collaborations, The King of Comedy is a remarkable black comedy about an aspiring comic, Rupert Pupkin who boldly and blindly seeks success by any means necessary. This is De Niro as you’ve never seen him before in one of his most masterful performances.

Cruising
William Friedkin’s dark thriller sees Al Pacino caught up in underground S&M gay subculture of New York as he hunts for a serial killer who is preying on the men on the underground scene. Though controversial at the time of its release, Cruising is a progressive look at the underground world of sex clubs that few people dared peer into at the time.

The Godfather Trilogy
Light House Cinema is delighted to present all three of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather films. Thought they never share screen time, this series of films feature both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in two of their most ionic roles as members of the Corleone family at different times in the family’s journey.

On Saturday, June 4th they will screen all three films in an epic marathon screening over the course of one day but you will also have the opportunity to watch all three separately during the week before.

Tickets are available here:  http://www.lighthousecinema.ie/newsarticle.php?sec=NEWS&_aid=9130