Martin Scorsese "Goodfellas", and its excessive violence that garnered it a reputation as possibly the most violent American gangster film ever made. Indeed, many of the tropes and tricks of the earlier film resurfaced more or less intact, most obviously the casting of both Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Pesci once again playing an unbridled psychopath. Sharon Stone was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance. During the filming Scorsese played a background part as a gambler at one of the tables. Scorsese still found time for a four-hour documentary in 1995, titled "A Personal Journey with Martin
Robert De Niro Sr. worked for five years at Hilla Rebay’s legendary Museum of Non-Objective Art. In 1945, he was included in a group show at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century in New York, which was a leading gallery for the art of both established European modernists and members of the emerging Abstract Expressionist group like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Clyfford Still. De Niro had his first solo exhibition at Guggenheim's gallery in April and May of the following year. At that point, he was primarily working in an abstract manner, often with figural references. Much of his work from