Al Pacino: An Actor's Vision [4 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This 4-DVD set collects some of Pacino's work as a director: Chinese Coffee (2001), Looking for Richard (1996), Local Stigmatic, and Babbelonia. The first three titles include commentary by Pacino.

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 4
• Audio: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.0
• Subtitle: Spanish, English

AWARDS

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Nominated Truer Than Fiction Award - 1996 (Al Pacino)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2000

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Al Pacino

• Producer:

  Larry Meistrich, Michael Hadge, Robert Salerno, Al Pacino, William Teitler

• Screenwriter:

  Ira Lewis

• Play Author:

  Ira Lewis

• Screenwriter:

  Al Pacino, Frederic Kimball

• Play Author:

  William Shakespeare, Heathcote Williams

• Cinematographer:

  Frank Prinzi, Jon Kranhouse, Robert Leacock, Steve Confer, Nina Kedrem

• Composer (Music Score):

  Elmer Bernstein, Howard Shore

• Editor:

  Michael Berenbaum, Pasquale A. Buba, William A. Anderson, Ned Bastille, Andre Betz

• Production Designer:

  Wing Lee

• Art Director:

  Kevin Ritter

• Co-producer:

  James Bulleit

• Costume Designer:

  Franne Lee, Yvonne Blake, Aude Bronson-Howard, Deborah L. Scott

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Mathew Price

• First Assistant Director:

  J. Miller Tobin

• Casting:

  Bonnie Timmermann

• Additional Cinematography:

  Barry Markowitz, Michael Spiller

REVIEW:

• Al Pacino's intriguing documentary-cum-stage-production-cum-actor's-workshop ultimately works out to be a successful rumination on the enduring presence of Shakespeare and his most produced play, Richard III. The most interesting thing about the movie (other than that the person who seems to understand The Bard best is a blustering homeless man) is the presence and "performance" of Pacino. For a generation that grew up with Pacino's distinctively intense style, this glimpse into the workings of the man and his profession is absorbing. Over an unspecified amount of time, Pacino, along with the impressive cast, discusses and stages certain scenes, struggles to grasp the full meaning of the work, and ultimately tries to put Shakespeare in a modern context. If nothing else, Looking for Richard offers the chance to see how actors relate (or in the case of Winona Ryder, don't relate) to their material. This examination of actors and their roles in a play is reminiscent of 1994's Vanya on 42nd Street, or even the other Louis Malle, Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn production, 1981's My Dinner With Andre. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi