{"id":28491,"date":"2019-12-07T09:44:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T08:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=28491"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:29:58","slug":"the-irishman-vie-et-mort-des-dieux-de-la-pegre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/cinema\/films\/the-irishman-vie-et-mort-des-dieux-de-la-pegre\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abThe Irishman\u00bb, life and death of underworld gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday's Netflix & chill - Ivan Garcia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Released on Netflix on November 27, Martin Scorsese's latest feature follows the life story of Frank Sheeran, a former hitman for the Italian-American mafia. In this long film, with its multiple characters and levels of narration, the director weaves together the testimony of a man and an era, within a great mythology of the underworld. Here's how. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In an American nursing home, Frank Sheeran, a man with a troubled past, tells his story on camera. Through numerous close-ups, the viewer follows the elderly man\u2014dapperly dressed and wearing sunglasses\u2014as he recounts his past, particularly his time as a hitman working for the Bufalino crime family. The protagonist, Sheeran, is nicknamed \u00abThe Irishman\u00bb by this criminal underworld, where everyone has an alias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he got his start in the underworld, Frank was a humble truck driver affiliated with the Teamsters<\/em> \u2013 the American truck drivers\u00ab union, and explains how, after his truck breaks down at a Pennsylvania highway rest stop, he briefly meets a man named Russell Bufalino. The latter, who is in fact a powerful Italian mob boss, meets Frank several times and eventually hires him to \u00bbpaint houses\u201d (editor\u2019s note: a mob expression used in the film to refer to a murder). Over time, Russell and Frank develop a close, friendly\u2014even brotherly\u2014relationship. With Russell\u2019s help, the protagonist becomes the bodyguard and assistant to Jimmy Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters<\/em>, about whom the film offers a strange theory regarding his (real) disappearance\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the right, the brilliant American actor: Al Pacino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Book to Screen <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The story that\nMartin Scorsese brings to the screen is, in a sense, a rewriting and adaptation\nof a book published in 2004 in the United States, titled I Heard You Paint\nHouses: Frank \u201cThe Irishman\u201d Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy\nHoffa<\/em>. Written\nby American journalist and author Charles Brandt, the book chronicles the\nlife of a man named Francis Joseph Sheeran and his ties to the Bufalino family,\nparticularly in connection with the mysterious disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, the film offers us an alternative take on reality; most of the characters who appear on screen\u2014especially the mobsters, such as Tony Provenzano, Joe Gallo, Jimmy Hoffa, Russell Bufalino, and, of course, Frank Sheeran\u2014actually existed and played major roles in the mob world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while the book follows a linear, chronological progression, the film opts for a multi-layered narrative structure. The first narrative and temporal layer is the account told by old Frank in his nursing home; the second is Frank and Russell\u2019s trip, accompanied by their two wives, to attend a wedding; the third is Frank Sheeran\u2019s autobiographical account, from his early days as a delivery driver until he embarks on the journey with Russell. In fact, toward the last third of the film, the three levels converge and ultimately return to the nursing home and the elderly Frank. While this interplay between the different narrative levels is beautiful and subtle, it sometimes fails to make sense to the viewer, who struggles to keep track of all the names and faces of the myriad characters that Scorsese incorporates into his film.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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