On the evening of Tuesday, May 13, Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or (gold watch, lifetime achievement) at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

The ceremony (which I may not be able to attend as I’ll only be checking into the pad that afternoon) will omit the fact that quality-wise DeNiro’s career slowed down in the 21st Century, and that over the last quarter-century he’s starred or costarred in only four blue-chip, award-worthy films — David O. Russell‘s Silver Linings Playbook (’12, Nancy Meyers‘ The Intern (’15), Todd Phillips‘ Joker (’19) and Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman (’19).

He was excellent in Playbook, very good in the middle two, and magnificent in the sprawling Scorsese epic.

But DeNiro’s 20th Century hot streak was historic. He enjoyed a brilliant 27-year run between Bang The Drum Slowly (’73) and Meet the Parents (’00). One winner after another, especially during the first decade — Drum, Mean Streets (’73), The Godfather Part II (’74) Taxi Driver (’76), 1900 (’76), The Deer Hunter (’78…didn’t like it), Raging Bull (’80).

And then came a second hot streak in the ’90s — Goodfellas (’90), Awakenings (ditto), Cape Fear (’91….didn’t like it), Mad Dog and Glory (’93….ace-level, character-driven dramedy), This Boy’s Life (’93), A Bronx Tale (’93), Casino (’95), the magnificent Heat (’95), Jackie Brown (’97), Wag the Dog (’97), Ronin (’97) and Analyze This (’99…the second gangster-goes-to-professional-therapist enterprise that year).

27 or 28 gold-medal winners in the 20th Century, and four in the 21st.

But if DeNiro had quit acting after Raging Bull, he would still deserve a career-achievement award. Anyone familiar with that famous wailing jail-cell scene knows the name of that tune. A crude and bestial man experiencing the absolute nadir of his bruising (and bruise-dispensing) life…his explosive feelings of absolute and overpowering self-loathing…this horrific episode results, for viewers, in something oddly cleansing and almost therapeutic.

This was DeNiro’s all-time peak moment…the kind of bravura acting moment that only a young or youngish fellow can capture or deliver.