I told you in May from the Cannes Film Festival that Martin Scorsese’s “killers of the Flower Moon” was a masterpiece of filmmaking.
Tonight the fully packed house at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall agreed with me, I’m happy to say. When the star studded premiere screening finally finished after three mesmerizing hours, the audience cheered and cheered and stayed through the credits.
Among the stars I ran into were Oscar winners Ellen Burstyn and Tim Robbins — not together. Ellen won her Oscar for Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” She’s almost 91 and looks as elegant and lithe as always. Robbins and I had a warm reunion — we knew each other in the days of “Bull Durham.” He told me he’s living a lot of the time in London.
There was also a nice “Sopranos” reunion of Stevie van Zandt and Michael Imperioli. Rocker David Johansson made a rare appearance, as did Lorne Michaels, Apple genius Eddy Cue, famed Coen Bros. composer Carter Burwell, award winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger with his artist wife, Loren Eiferman, and many members from the Osage tribe in Oklahoma who participated in making the movie. Matthew Broderick and award winning playwright Kenneth Lonergan made it upstairs after the movie to pay their respects to Scorsese at the after party.
But there was no Robert De Niro, Leonardo Di Caprio, or Lily Gladstone because of the SAG strike continuing. Scorsese acknowledged them briefly from the stage, saying, “They’re someplace else” and choosing not to expand on the issue.
Apple and Paramount went all out to make the “Killers” premiere an event. They know they’ve got a Best Picture winner, and maybe even the winner. Scorsese, 81, is at the top of his game as are his actors and his famous editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who accepted kudos graciously at the after party.
“Killers” opens in limited release on October 6th and wide in theaters on October 20th and it will wait for its time on Apple TV. Schoonmaker implored me to say, “See it on the biggest screen you can, with Dolby if possible!”
