In this feature film by Martin Scorsese, presented Saturday in Cannes, the 79-year-old actor plays William Hale, nicknamed "King", a businessman eager for black gold who hatches a terrible plot to despoil revenues from their oil a Native American community of Oklahoma, the Osage, in the 20s. A scenario inspired by real events.
He relies on the naïve Ernest Burkahrt (Leonardo DiCaprio), embroiled in the conspiracy.
"I don't understand much about him, why he betrays them...", explained the iconic Scorsese actor, who builds a relationship of trust with the Osage before orchestrating dozens of murders.
"But we understood this much better after the death of George Floyd, with this systematic racism, and that's what it's about here," De Niro added, referring to the death in 2020 in Minneapolis of this African-American, who died of asphyxiation under the knee of a police officer.
"This is the banality of evil, the thing we have to pay attention to. We all know who I'm going to talk about, I won't pronounce his name," promised the unforgettable interpreter of "Taxi Driver".
But a few minutes later, De Niro, a notorious opponent of the former US president, could not restrain himself: "It's like with Trump, I had to say it. There are people who think he can do a good job. Imagine how crazy it is," he said.
Deaf violence, settling scores and betrayals: "Killers of the Flower Moon", presented in world premiere on the Croisette, transposes the universe of Martin Scorsese's greatest films on the dusty lands of this Indian tribe at the beginning of the twentieth century.
With its sumptuous realization, at the height of the pharaonic budget of 200 million euros, and its licked images, this fresco takes its time (3H26) to highlight, murder after murder, the colonial and racist dynamics that have persisted in the United States in the twentieth century.
© 2023 AFP