Robert De Niro wanted ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to be shot entirely in the Osage language
nme.comMartin Scorsese has revealed that Robert De Niro wanted the whole of Killers of the Flower Moon to be filmed in the Osage language.Scorsese revealed the news during a Q&A session with fellow filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg after a screening of the film last week (November 14) at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles.The recently released film – which is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, De Niro and Lily Gladstone – is based on a non-fiction book of the same name published in 2017.
It tells the true story of a series of murders of Osage Native Americans over the rights for the oil under their land in Oklahoma.The film includes several scenes in which the Osage language is spoken, and De Niro in particular enjoyed learning it so much that he asked the director whether the whole film could be made in that dialect.Scorsese said: “By the way, a lot of the Osage language is lost, but they’re putting it back together, so to speak.
There was a teacher, Chris, and he was teaching [Gladstone] and Leo, and also Bob, too.”“De Niro liked it so much that he wanted to do most of the film in Osage, and I said, ‘You can’t, come on Bob’.”During the conversation, Spielberg described Scorsese’s new film as “an exceptional experience”.“You know how I feel about all of your films, but this one stands out in a way for me that’s so impactful.
It’s an epic journey, but it’s not a Hollywood epic – for me, it’s a humanitarian epic.”Spielberg rounded off the conversation by saying: “You are the master of our medium, and this is your masterpiece, Marty.”Scorsese recently heaped praise on Brendan Fraser after the actor received criticism online for his performance in the new film.“We had a really good time working together, particularly with Leo,” the director.
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