Filming Faux Pas? Or Wink to an Audience?

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2019)

Mr. De Niro appears to look directly at the camera multiple times during the breakfast scene with Mr. Pesci in "The Irishman".
That struck me as odd and very unusual.
Was it intentional? Was it tongue-in-cheek? Or was it a figment of my imagination?