Harvey Keitel to Receive Locarno Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award

By: Caryn Robbins Aug. 01, 2016

Fifty years and over a hundred faces. In a name, Harvey Keitel. Locarno embraces one of the greatest actors in Hollywood and rewards him on August 6th in Piazza Grande with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is the face of Sport, The Wolf, Hal, Charlie, Auggie, Rocco or simply the "lieutenant". Locarno is awarding one of the greatest of Hollywood actors, who is soon to celebrate a career that spans 50 years. After his starring debut in Who's That Knocking at My Door, Keitel returned to work with Martin Scorsese on Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), starred in Ridley Scott's debut film (The Duellists, 1977) and was a leading presence throughout the 90s with Thelma & Louise (1991), The Bad Lieutenant (1992), Reservoir Dogs (1992), The Piano (1993) and Pulp Fiction (1994). More recent credits include Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and Youth (2015).

From Scorsese to Wes Anderson, via Ridley Scott and Quentin Tarantino, he has also been the protagonist for Altman, De Palma and SPIKE Lee. Paolo Sorrentino has been only the last in a long line of Italian directors, following Scola, Faenza, Comencini, Wertmüller, Soldati and Argento, who had Keitel follow a "made in Italy" trajectory, parallel to the one he had in Hollywood. Nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991) Harvey Keitel is also a producer and co-president of the Actors Studio.

Sunday August 7, in addition to the screening of Smoke at 14.00 at the Cinema Ex*Rex, the audience will be able to participate in a conversation with the actor at the Spazio Cinema (Forum) at 11.30.

Source: Locarno Film Festival Official Site

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos