The King of Comedy is thirty years old and to celebrate the momentous anniversary, the star of the mad-cap kidnap comedy Robert De Niro decided to air a special screening of the movie at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday (April 27). De Niro, who co-founded the film fest with Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff twelve years ago, attended the anniversary screening alongside the movie's director, Martin Scorsese and his co-star in the movie, the legendary Jerry Lewis.

Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro at the start of the film festival last week

The three reunited on stage at the Borough of Manhattan Community College before the screening to deliver a few preliminary laughs prior to the feature presentation, with De Niro admitting that he hasn't seen the film in "at least 25 years," saying after, "I'm very curious to see it. If I'm not too embarrassed, I'll stay here after."

After the show, De Niro managed to escape the blushes of embarassment and was full of praise for his co-star and director, telling the audience "I do look at it in a different way. I think Jerry was terrific," adding, "The stuff that Marty did as well. It was great to watch." However, Martin wasn't as balled over this time round, humorously asking "It wasn't a comedy, was it?"

As well as a few rounds of self-congratulations, Tribeca also honoured a few new films last week, with Kim Mordaunt's Laos-based tale of a lost boy in The Rocket winning the audience award for narrative feature. Meanwhile, the audience award for documentary went to Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's same-sex marriage argument Bridegroom.

Robert De Niro
De Niro has been trying to become the King of Comedy for real in recent years.