The fantastic one-of-one Robert De Niro steps into the Criterion Closet.
In the latest episode of Criterion’s cult-favorite series “Closet Picks,” the fantastic one-of-one Robert De Niro lets the cinema love spill — pulling titles from the Criterion Collection that have inspired, challenged, and moved him throughout his career.
Robert De Niro goes full movie-lover mode, from Italian classics to Fellini memories and one very charming almost-shopping-trip energy.
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It’s a rare little moment where the artisan-creator steps out from behind the characters he’s embodied and speaks directly to the films that shaped his artistic consciousness. And yes, Mr. De Niro somehow makes the entire thing feel like he’s on a casual shopping trip at the local Blockbuster, lovingly grabbing titles while occasionally forgetting to show us what he’s pulling out.
Too cute. He’s a legend. He can do as he wishes.
De Niro opens with Big Deal on Madonna Street, calling the Italian caper a terrific movie, even if it has been years since he last saw it. He then moves through more Italian-cinema favorites, including Mafioso with Alberto Sordi, a film he says he and Martin Scorsese once discussed remaking.
Then comes Divorce Italian Style, another title he remembers with that beautifully understated De Niro approval: terrific. Simple. Clean. No unnecessary speechifying. Just Bobby D letting the cinema sit there and glow.
He also pulls Blow-Up, remembering Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film as something that felt like another style at the time — an art film, yes, but one that crossed over and reached a wider audience. He recalls David Hemmings in the film and the way it seemed to live between the experimental and the popular.
From there, De Niro touches on Agnès Varda, remembering that he knew Varda and her husband Jacques Demy a little bit. He also brings up working on One Hundred and One Nights, joking through the memory of speaking French with Catherine Deneuve and how tough that part was for him.
And naturally, Fellini enters the room. De Niro lands on La Dolce Vita, remembering a New York premiere on Third Avenue at either the Baronet or the Coronet, where he watched the maestro himself come in. A tiny flash of memory, but the kind only someone who lived inside the golden bloodstream of cinema could casually drop.
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Closet Picks has long been a cinephile’s treasure chest, spotlighting actors, musicians, filmmakers, and cultural figures as they trace the films that shaped their craft. De Niro’s installment stands out because it is so wonderfully unvarnished — brief, reflective, funny in its own low-key way, and deeply cinematic without trying too hard.
Feel all of De Niro’s love below.
Robert De Niro’s Criterion Closet Picks in motion.
It’s less a polished lecture and more a little cinematic memory walk: Italian comedies, Antonioni, Varda, Deneuve, Fellini, and De Niro remembering what stayed with him after decades of watching, working, and becoming one of the faces of modern film acting.
Watch Robert De Niro’s Criterion Closet Picks.
The episode features Robert De Niro browsing the Criterion Closet, naming films that moved him, and giving fans a quick but priceless look at the cinematic loves behind the legend.
Sources: Video and film selections via Criterion Collection / YouTube; series context via Criterion Closet Picks.
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