‘The Irishman’ Opens the New York Film Festival

Martin Scorsese’s new drama, “The Irishman,” which opened this year’s New York Film Festival, took 12 years to make and three and a half hours to watch.

“This film is of substantial duration,” Mr. Scorsese said before its premiere on Friday night at Lincoln Center.

The tented red carpet, which occupied a lane of West 65th street, was a veritable perp walk of mob-film actors: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino (in his first Scorsese movie). Other cast members included Anna Paquin, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons and Bobby Cannavale.

Talk among the actors turned to Rao’s, the East Harlem Italian restaurant and former mafia canteen, where reservations are harder to come by than a don’s forgiveness. Bo Dietl, a private investigator who plays a mobster in the film, had a tip for getting a table. “You have to know Bo Dietl,” he said.

Daphna Kastner, Mr. Keitel’s wife, had a different idea. “Kill somebody,” she said.

Mr. Cannavale was no less helpful. “You got to make buddies with Bo Dietl. Or Woody Allen, or Sonny Grosso,” he said, referring to the New York police detective immortalized in “The French Connection.” “Those are the three guys I’ve been there with.”

More than four hours later, the cast arrived at the after-party at Tavern on the Green, where they were joined by Leonardo DiCaprio, Katie Holmes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Spike Lee, Kirsten Dunst, Rose Byrne, David O. Russell, John Turturro and Fran Lebowitz.

They were effusive in their praise for the film, which is already an awards-season favorite. Based on the book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” about the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the film will stream on Netflix after a limited theatrical release.

Does the cast have any advice for cinema-goers who may need to leave their seat during such a long film?

“That’s what I was worried about, but I find the movie is so compelling I could not walk away,” Mr. Cannavale said. “Once it comes out on Netflix, you can take a million bathroom breaks if you want.”

‘The King’ Courts the Press

Perhaps all that good buzz has gone to Netflix’s head.

On Tuesday night in Chelsea, Netflix held a star-studded premiere for “The King,” a period drama about England’s King Henry V at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, starring Timothée Chalamet and Lily-Rose Depp.

The media covering the after-party at the Box nightclub on the Lower East Side received bizarre instructions: “Netflix are requesting that you refrain from commenting on the cast’s activities.”

So much for “Netflix and chill.”

Could the cold shoulder have something to do with recent paparazzi pictures of Mr. Chalamet and Ms. Depp smooching on a boat, teasing the media with evidence of a publicity-friendly romance that they coyly refuse to confirm?

Journalists were told at the last moment that such questions were also off-limits on the red carpet, where the young actors conspicuously kept their distance from each other before the screening.

They were joined by Joel Edgerton, a co-star, and David Michôd, the director. (Mr. Edgerton and Mr. Michôd also wrote the film.) Boldface guests included The Weeknd, Patti Smith, Alysia Reiner and Gina Gershon.

Mr. Chalamet, in a black Givenchy suit and yellow mock turtleneck, charmed his legion of shrieking fans with hugs and selfies. He was also generous with reporters, albeit on a narrower range of questions.

Did he think his royal character would have supported freedom of the press?

“There was no printing press yet, so it’s almost impossible to imagine,” he said. “But if you’re making an allusion to the attack on the press that’s super-contemporaneous, it’s scary, it’s destabilizing, but thankfully it’s instigated a conversation to be aware of it.”

And should that freedom extend to reporting on the “activities” of celebrities such as himself?

His publicist tapped him on the wrist before he could answer; it was time to move on.

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