Marrakech (Morocco) (AFP)

Hollywood "needs to be reformed" to find a creative breath, said the American actor Harvey Keitel to AFP Monday, before one of the rare screenings of "The Irishman" at the Marrakech Film Festival ( Morocco).

"Hollywood is a great creation, when I was young, I thought it had to be destroyed, but I do not think that anymore, I think it needs to be reformed," said the actor, during a interview with several journalists.

For him, "what has been accomplished (by Hollywood) is sensational, but there is a loss of integrity: there was a time when the big studios were carrying art and the film industry was trying to find young people. new directors ". "It quickly disappeared," added the one who plays a supporting role in Martin Scorsese's latest film "The Irishman".

This epic about 3:30 was presented Monday evening during a special session of the Marrakech festival.

The sold-out theater has thus benefited from a rare opportunity to see this movie reserved for subscribers of the Netflix platform, whose limited distribution in the cinema makes the teeth of moviegoers around the world cringe.

If Mr. Scorsese implores the audience not to watch the film on their phone, Harvey Keitel recalled that the American director "could not have done The Irishman + without the good graces of Netflix: nobody wanted it".

"Seeing the cinemas close makes us all a little sad, but for me, I always thought that we must evolve with the times," said Harvey Keitel, who has just turned 80 years old.

He assured that he had never tried to "work with well-known filmmakers": "I have always sought the experience of words (...), a life experience that gives me the impression of learning something about who I am, where I am going and how to get there. "

Mr. Keitel recalled accepting the lead role in "Reservoir Dogs", Quentin Tarantino's (1992) first feature film he had supported to secure funding. He also toured Australia's Jane Campion (The Piano Lesson) and the French Bertrand Tavernier (Death Live).

Its ideal of authenticity goes back to the 1950s on Broadway, at the time of Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller or Tenessee Williams, when "there were people inhabited by the need to be honest on stage".

"We wanted to be authentic, it was the most important, it was not not to be commercial, because we must live well, but not to be marketed." It is this spirit "that we must not lose".

At present, "is the authenticity still there Yes, could we have more, I say yes," he said.

© 2019 AFP