Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Scorsese & De Niro: "Total Trust"

Today, a look at astrological connections between another movie actor & director who have worked together with great success: Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. This is arguably the most illustrious of any such collaboration. Quite honestly though, the movies they've made together don't appeal to me. I realise that I'm way out of step with the majority of movie-goers.


Scorsese and De Niro have collaborated on:

Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
Goodfellas
Cape Fear
Mean Streets
Casino
New York New York
The King of Comedy

I understand there's another collaboration coming up, possibly due for release later this year: "I Heard You Paint Houses".



My own favourite movies starring Robert De Niro are not Scorsese films: "Mad Dog and Glory" and "Falling in Love". Perhaps I just have no taste, but Scorsese themes hold no appeal for me. Perhaps his taste is led by four Scorpio planets in his natal chart. His work, for the most part, addresses themes related to the Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and the violence in American society.

Martin Scorsese was born on 17 November 1942, in Flushing, New York at 12.24am (Astrodatabank).



Robert De Niro was born on 17 August 1943, in Brooklyn, New York at 3am (Astrodatabank).



I note one clear factor standing out as a source of professional compatibility and personal friendship: both men have Moon in Pisces, within 3 degrees. They share an inner sensitivity, capacity for imagination and compassion which, in spite of the subject matter of some of their movies together, provides an undercurrent of what I guess could be called "magic" in their work.

Natal Suns are not particularly compatible - Scorsese's Scorpio Sun is in close square (challenging) to De Niro's Sun in Leo. However, De Niro's Mercury and Venus in Virgo are sextile ( 60* - harmonious) Scorsese's Mercury and Venus in Scorpio.
DeNiro's two Virgo planets are, I suspect, the source of his reputation as a perfectionist in preparation for his roles.

"Scorsese refers to De Niro as 'Mr Perfection', and credits the actor as a major contributor to each of the films, from improvising new dialogue to rearranging troublesome scenes so that they work."

The disharmony in their natal Suns is compensated by their respective ascending signs. De Niro's Watery Cancer rising is very compatible with Scorsese's Scorpio planets, while Scorsese's Leo rising matches De Niro's Leo Sun.

Scorsese has four planets in Scorpio: he's passionate, intense, and determined. De Niro has 3 planets in Leo - he's obviously quite at home in the Leo limelight. Both Leo and Scorpio are Fixed signs, sure of their ground, occasionally stubborn. There's probably some sense of solidity or stability between them a reflection of these clusters of planets in Fixed signs. This quote from De Niro may be relevant:

"What's important in our work, which is very heavy and very slow, is a kind of complicity, solidarity, and at least a minimum of fun - which prevents migraines. Our collaboration is a complete collaboration. We work together in total trust." See here.

De Niro and Scorsese are of the same generation, just nine months separate their births, the outer planets remain in similar positions for both. The two men have Italian blood, both were born and grew up in, or around, New York. These factors surely add to their ease of mutual understanding and sense of trust.



Martin Scorsese on Robert De Niro:
"And even now I still know of nobody who can surprise me on the screen the way he does -- and did then. No actor comes to mind who can provide such power and excitement."
More actor/director collaborators from previous posts:
Tom Hanks/Ron Howard
Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott
Johnny Depp/Tim Burton

4 comments:

anthonynorth said...

I don't know why, but I'm not a great fan of either of these. I can't put my finger on it, though.

Twilight said...

AN ~~~ I understand. De Niro I like sometimes, Scorsese, not so much. :-)

Shawn Carson said...

I don't really have anything to add to the great delineation you made between these men and their horoscopes, but you can include me in the great number of americans who are fascinated by stories about the mob. I cannot resist catching a few scenes of Goodfellas every time i see it on tv, even though I have seen this movie several times.

Twilight said...

Shawn ~~~ Yes, I can understand Americans being fascinated by what is, after all, a part of their history - even though Scorsese's movies are fiction, they are based on fact, I guess.

In the UK we have stuff like King Arthur's knights, Robin Hood and the highwayman Dick Turpin to amuse us. lol!