Robert De Niro and Al Pacino Star in Moncler's Latest Campaign

It’s not often we’re graced with the on-screen presence of two of cinema’s all-time greats at the same time. In fact, when it comes to Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, you can count the films they’ve starred in together on one hand – The Godfather Part II (1974), Heat (1995), Righteous Kill (2008), and The Irishman (2019) – and still have a finger left over.

Enter Moncler’s latest campaign: Warmer Together – technically the fifth time the pair have featured on film together, though officially “their first-ever shared campaign.” And if Moncler’s jackets weren’t enough to make you feel warm, De Niro and Pacino’s chemistry is guaranteed to, as their lifelong friendship radiates through the screen in both the stills and the short films that make up the campaign.

“There was one point where I asked them to embrace in one of the pictures, and I asked them to just hold it for a second. Going back to their Italian roots, Mediterranean men always hug each other. And as they gave each other a hug, I could see that Al and Bob were secretly tickling each other underneath their arms! It created a moment of laughter that was really, really sweet.”

Joining the ranks of Coppola, Mann, Avnet and Scorsese – directors of the aforementioned films, respectively, who hold the rare honor of directing the De Niro-Pacino duo on film – is Platon, the British photographer best known for his iconic and era-defining portraits of world leaders.  “I think I’ve photographed more world leaders than anyone in history now,” he tells Hypebeast, adding “but it was a great honor to direct these two guys.”

Shot at Platon’s studio in New York, the campaign sees Bob and Al cozy up together on camera unlike you’ve seen them before. Captured in Platon signature style, the result a series of striking monochrome portraiture that’s accompanied by suite of short films, in what Moncler describes as “a cinematic expression of friendship, connection, and human warmth” between “two lifelong friends.”

For Platon – who’s photographed everybody from Colonel Gaddafi to President Obama – Warmer Together might, on one hand, seem like a departure from his usual work. But on the other, for as an artist whose lens is fixed on the “human condition” and the “human connection” – phrases he repeated several times while talking to Hypebeast – it was just another day at the studio.

“And there another point when I remember, I said to Al, ‘Al, can you tell me the meaning of life? What’s it all about?’ And he said, ‘Son, have you ever felt the woes of life?’ And I said, ‘Not yet, Al, but you know, generally, I’m doing okay.’ And he said, ‘It’s coming.’”

Hypebeast spoke to Platon ahead of the launch of Moncler’s new Warmer Together campaign. He discussed his craft and what it was like to work with such giants as De Niro and Pacino, as well as sharing advice for up-and-coming photographers and funny anecdotes from the campaign set.

You can check out our full conversation below…

You’ve photographed many greats. Was it any different shooting two at the same time – Bob De Niro and Al Pacino – who also happen to be very good friends?

Well, I’d worked with both of them before. In fact, Pacino, I worked with maybe 25 years ago the first time. Each time we work together marks time: he got older, I got older, and the same with De Niro. I had very magical times with them in the past, but to have them both come together in this way was incredible. And with the film side of [the campaign], it was a great honor to direct these two guys. I mean, to direct Pacino and De Niro together… not many people have done that in history. And for a photographer to do that was a very, very humbling experience. But the amazing thing is, I’ve always tried to learn from my subjects. Always. If you spend magical time with people, you have to walk away with an expanded sense of the human condition – every time, and that’s what informs my pictures.

There’s a real sense of friendship that comes across in the stills – you can tell that these are two men who have a great deal of respect for each other and are friends. But there’s also a real sense of playfulness that comes across in the photos as well.

They’re very different as people. And this is just my impression, but Bob is like a master of concentration. He will hear a pin drop in the room – and if you’re in the middle of something he’ll look up and give someone that look that nobody wants to get, because somebody left their phone on or something. And it’s not because he’s difficult; he has this sort of quiet, and he’s quite reserved when you meet him, but he controls the room with his concentration. I’ve never met professional concentration on that level before. Al is a much more outgoing, sort of overtly emotional person. He’ll yell with joy, or he’ll get frustrated, and it’s much more out. So you have these two characters that are very different, and to bring them together is really interesting. And so you get not just friends, but these two very different people meeting in the middle. There was one point where I asked them to embrace in one of the pictures, and I asked them to just hold it for a second. Going back to their Italian roots, Mediterranean men always hug each other. And as they gave each other a hug, I could see that Al and Bob were secretly tickling each other underneath their arms! It created a moment of laughter that was really, really sweet. So we caught the cheekiness, the playfulness. I know they both have played rather intimidating characters, but, as people, their friendship brought out the playfulness and the humanity of them. It’s either tender and philosophical, or cheeky and playful, and they tease each other. I thought that was a really nice way of showing friendship in this campaign.

“It’s the fragment of a second that counts. It’s the look in their eye or the slight gesture with their body that reveals something permanent about their personality or their character. That’s the magic. It’s the split second, not a split second, that I’m looking for.”

As a portrait photographer, how do you keep an image honest in 2025?

That’s a really big question, and it deserves a big answer. I think about this a lot and I’m beginning to realize that the most important thing for us all is to be more curious and less judgmental. As a portrait photographer, it’s not about the photography – that’s kind of boring, that’s a technical exercise. The most important thing is your capacity to connect with people and to share an experience. In some cases, I don’t always agree with my subjects. In fact, I’ve photographed most of the world’s dictators and there are a lot of things I fundamentally disagree with. But when you are judgmental, it reduces your capacity to observe and to discover you’re making judgments and narrowing your bandwidth, and when you’re curious, it broadens. So I’ve learned not to judge. It’s not for me to judge. It’s for history to judge. Be open, be curious about each other, put judgment aside, and you’ll discover more about the world you live in. I think that’s what I’ve come to at this point in my life.

Your work sits at the intersection of power and humanity in many ways. How do you how do you navigate that tension? And was it any different in more of a cultural, fashion context like in this campaign?

I’m really interested in power. And I often ask myself, does power reveal who we really are, or does it distort and corrupt as you acquire it? I suspect it’s both. I think I photographed more world leaders than anyone in history now, and I have this little stool – my little apple box that everyone sits on – that more world leaders have sat on than any chair in history. Someone at the United Nations told me that. Muhammad Ali even sat on it, you know. It’s interesting, because it’s only a box. On one hand, the box is kind of meaningless. On the other hand, it’s a symbol of power. There’s a sort of democracy in that. Normally, I work in a very intimate way: People come to my New York studio, it’s very quiet, very respectful. My team – small team – and I keep it humble, because I want that intimacy. Well, on this shoot, there were like two or 300 people on set – the biggest set I’ve ever been on, I think, because there was the film contingent as well. So, the whole thing was a little overwhelming. Even for Bob and Al, they both said, “Who are all these people?” when they walked on set. It was massive, but I thrive in that environment, too. I have to work very hard to not allow all that projection of power and success and people [to affect] the intimacy and the humanity of the work. When it comes to the moment that we’re on set and I’m filming, I’m talking to them – I’m capturing their spirit. You have to protect that. To maintain human authenticity is a very hard thing to do, especially when we’re all distracted. 

So, in that environment, how do you find a real moment of intimacy?

That is actually my job – to tune into someone’s frequency, like in an old radio set, concentrating very hard until you find their channel. And when you find their channel, it’s the most beautiful experience. To tune into someone’s humanity and to discover who they really are as a person, that takes so much concentration, and that’s what I did on on this shoot.

What’s the first thing you look for when someone walks into the room?

You have to read the room really, really well. [The period] before a shoot is a very unpleasant experience for me. I get very lonely. I have to heighten my powers of concentration and observation. There’s a lot of noise and distraction, which I try to calm down. It’s very similar to being an athlete. If you watch an athlete prepare before a sprint in the Olympics, what are they going through? I’m sure when you’re preparing for an interview, you’re sort of getting your head focused so that you’re in the zone by the time it begins. So it’s… it’s athletic, but it’s in the mind. So you’re dealing.

How much of your work is instinct versus preparation?

Well, there’s a lot of preparation, but it’s all mental. There is no physical. I don’t have sets – it’s just a white background and one light and an apple box. There’s no drapes, there’s no grand chairs or armchairs to create a mood. Everything will come from my subject. And, of course, I haven’t met my subject yet, so I don’t know what spirit they’re going to have. And even if I know them and have photographed them a few times, every time is different because you don’t know the mood they’re in that day. So you have to be very respectful of the human condition, and you don’t know what someone’s just been through. I remember working with Heath Ledger, and he seemed so distant. He was a very sweet guy, but he was very distant and hard to reach. And, of course, I didn’t know why at the time, but, you know, he died a few months later. And I realized afterwards that he was a troubled person, and he was struggling with his life at that point and the idea of fame and success and responsibility, and he was really struggling. Everyone comes with different emotional stories – and that’s what’s amazing about my job, because every single time, it’s a different experience. The final picture is 1/500 of a second. The pictures you see of Al and Bob are just a split of a second, and somehow, when you get it right, it’s the fragment of the second that counts.

Has your idea of what makes a great portrait changed over the years?

You know, when I was younger, it was all instinct – I had an instinct that this one feels right. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to understand why the moment is right. But it hasn’t changed, my instincts are the same. Every person has this sort of moment when you speak to them and they reveal something magical about themselves. When I was younger, I was drawn to these moments, but I didn’t really know why.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s black and white or color. It doesn’t matter what the crop is or the lens you use. All that matters is that you look at that image and you go ‘wow’. You can’t design it. There is no market research for that. We’re talking about the human connection, and we all know it when we feel it.

I’m curious, what’s in your kit bag?

I have really only two types of lenses that I use. Sometimes three. Close up, which tells you what’s going on in the details of the face; when you go in really, really close you will see if someone is nervous – there’s a little bit of tension underneath the eye, your face is so expressive of what’s going on in your soul. When I go in close, it’s a very intimate experience. I mean, I once was an inch-and-a-half away from Putin’s nose. I could feel his breath on my hand as I focused that lens. That’s how I got the truth. Because it was an intimate experience, he trusted me and I trusted him in that moment. Then I’ve got a wider lens that describes something very different, which is body language. Forget about words. We’re expressing ourselves all the time with our with our facial expressions and our body movements, and so sometimes you might move in an interesting way, the way you lean, the way you sit back – all the things you doing are a description of how you’re feeling inside as a person. I see that stuff; that’s my language, that’s my grammar, and the wide lens helps me describe you in a more physical way. The close up lens goes in really… into your spirit, into your soul.

What about your everyday carry?

[Pulls out an iPhone] I’ve got a phone, which I use all the time. I use it to make notes, not write notes, visual notes. I’m photographing things all the time: a nice typeface I see on a wall, or a shape, or just a really great color combination. I used to draw in a little book all the time on the subway, I would draw people falling asleep and draw their mannerisms. I’m definitely a student of the human condition, and I’m still fascinated by it. I can’t help seeing, like, the way maybe an old lady walks down the street, and how she’s got a bag in her hand and the way she’s distributing the weight of her body. I see that stuff and I find it so fascinating – and sometimes really beautiful – to see how someone moves. In a time when we’re all drowning in distraction with technology, it’s really important to take those moments of reflection and look at the world around us. Look at the way someone you love moves and is doing the washing up or something. Take a moment to admire that, because when they’ve gone, you won’t be able to do that anymore – and you were robbed of that because you kept being distracted by catching up on texts and emails and social media. We all do it. I do it, too. We’ve gotta fight that back and open our eyes, open our hearts, and start seeing how beautiful we are as people.

What do you think makes a photographer stand out in the smartphone era?

I think it’s a badge of honor to be a photographer, because a photographer – a good photographer – is actually a cultural provocateur. And we, through our work, provoke respectful debate in society. When we’re good, what we’re doing is holding up a mirror to society and say, “This is who we are, and we need to talk about it.” That’s a good photographer. I think we definitely need a new generation of photographers. The magazine world that I grew up in has collapsed. That era is over, and I think what’s really exciting now is in this new era the middleman doesn’t really exist. Now, everyone has a chance to speak from their heart, and we’ve all got a platform to reach everybody with. The downside, of course, is that there are millions, billions of people taking pictures now, more than ever in history. But how do you cut through the noise? It’s really up to you – and, now, it’s your voice that cuts through. I think that’s a very democratic idea. I love that, and I embrace that.

What advice would you give to young photographers trying to find their voice in an algorithm-led world?

I think the algorithm is the curse of our generation, because humanity doesn’t work with an algorithm. What makes culture really exciting is that someone’s being authentic and expressing what’s really in their heart. If you think, Van Gogh didn’t sell one painting in his life, does that mean he was a terrible artist? No. They said he was at the time, but actually he was so ahead of the game that it took 40 years after his death to even sell his first painting. So, to young photographers, I would say this: be authentic, you are needed; you will feel lonely and you will feel times when you’re not validated, but the most important thing is to have self-respect and be able to sustain your love of self-expression. If you can self-sustain without depending on someone else’s validation, then you are free from the chains of acceptance – and then you become powerful, because you’re your own person. I spent the day with Quincy Jones once, in his house, and I said to him: “Quincy, when you were a young man, a young Black man in America trying to break through a white industry, you must have faced a lot of racism and and opposition. What did you used to say to the people who stood in your way?” And his face changed, and a powerful look came over his spirit, and he said: “This is what I used to say to my opponents: ‘Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.’” That is what I say to the young generation of photographers now. Be self-reliant, be dedicated – you’ve got to dedicate your life to becoming a craftsperson. You’ve got to learn your craft and not be dependent on the algorithm or on validation [from others].

Lastly… what are your thoughts on AI and how it will impact your craft – the craft of photography?

Well, at the moment, there’s a giant race to win the biggest stakes in the AI business. So, everyone’s building. It’s like racing cars designed to go as fast as they can to get to the finish line, but they’re not really focusing on the braking system or the safety of the car that they’re building. It’s because they can’t afford to even think about slowing down for a second, because they might lose the race. So you’ve got this strange – and I think, quite dangerous – dynamic where we’re focused more on winning the race in business of AI rather than guardrails for society. I think there are great risks culturally. I think we have to remind ourselves what the “A” stands for. It’s “artificial” – and, at the moment, it’s a novelty. Everyone is really excited by the idea that this thing or this image or this film or this piece of music, whatever it is, was not made by a human being. It’s a novelty right now, so that’s what we’re all distracted by. But after a while, I believe, things are going to level out and we’re going to realize, “Well, hold on a minute, this thing may be able to impress us, but it does it have soul?” A computer can have intelligence, but it doesn’t have a soul. The soul of somebody is what makes something really beautiful – the vulnerability, the feelings, the emotions. Sometimes the rage, sometimes the joy. All the facets of the human condition – that’s what makes something really beautiful. It’s not just intelligence.