Gérard Depardieu claims he helped Robert De Niro rise to the occasion

He is an award-winning actor, the co-owner of a French vineyard, an outspoken critic of Juliette Binoche and an occasional spokesman for a Polish bank, Zachodni WBK. Today, however, we can add a fresh credential to the glittering CV of Gerard Depardieu: that of sex therapist to the stars. Jetting into the Montreal World film festival last weekend, the 61-year-old actor recalled how he once coaxed co-star Robert De Niro through a sex scene on the set of the Italian epic 1900. His secret recipe, Depardieu explained, involved a combination of water and Tiger Balm, a Chinese heat rub. It was this concoction, he added, that ensured De Niro was able to maintain an erection throughout a scene that demanded full-frontal nudity. The two men have apparently been firm friends ever since. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, 1900 starred Depardieu and De Niro as two friends who come of age against a backdrop of political unrest in Italy. Along the way, they also have a great deal of sex. The film premiered at the 1976 Cannes film festival. Depardieu's recent films include In the Beginning, by Xavier Giannoli, and Bellamy, the last picture by the late Claude Chabrol. But in the past weeks he has attracted more attention for his off-screen remarks. Depardieu's chuckling reminiscences about working with De Niro follow hard on the heels of last month's comments about his compatriot Juliette Binoche, who he scathingly dismissed as "nothing".