Gérard Depardieu served as Robert De Niro’s sex therapist for ‘1900’ nude scene
Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 is chock-a-block with cocks. Set in Emilia-Romagna in the early 20th century, the epic romance traces the changing relationship of two childhood friends who become very close despite their class differences. So close, in fact, that during one controversial scene, the two boys compare erections. This mutual boldness doesn’t fade as they grow older. In a later scene, the adult friends – played by Robert DeNiro and Gérard Depardieu – are simultaneously jerked off by the same sex worker (Stefania Casini) while lying side by side.
According to Gérard Depardieu, 1900 was very much an example of life imitating art, with the French actor taking it upon himself to serve as Robert DeNiro’s personal fluffer and sex therapist. At the 2010 Montreal World film festival, the then-61-year-old actor recalled how he coached Robert DeNiro through one of his many sex scenes on the set of the film [per The Guardian].
It would seem Robert was struggling to get it up. This isn’t anything unusual. A chilly room full of cameramen and gaffers isn’t the optimum environment for sensual activity, after all. Being experienced in these matters, Depardieu gave DeNiro with his secret recipe: a cocktail of water, Tiger Balm and Chinese heat rub, which he claimed would ensure DeNiro was able to maintain an erection for the duration of the nude scene. It did, and the two actors have stayed close ever since.
That year, Depardieu was seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut. Shortly after Juliette Boniche Received her honourary award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, the French actor told the press: “Please can you explain to me what the mystery of Juliette Binoche is meant to be? She has nothing,” he concluded, “absolutely nothing”.
Binoche was bewildered by the remarks, explaining to The Guardian that Depardieu was among the first people she met on stepping into the industry. “I was 17 and still at school,” she recalled. “My father’s friend was working on Danton. Gérard came to me and said: ‘What are you doing here?’ I told him: ‘I’m just observing, I want to be an actress.’ He said: ‘Work on your classics.’ So he was such an important figure in my life. And then all these years later he…punched a fist in my face. And it injured me.”
You can revisit a clip (not that clip – that’s from the extended edition) from 1900 below. By this point in the film, the childhood friends have joined opposing political factions, with Olmo (Depardieu) on the side of the communists and Alfredo (DeNiro) on the side of the fascists.
